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THE STILL 
SMALL VOICE 



QUIET HOUR TALKS 



BT 



REV. G. P. PARDINGTON, Ph.D. 



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published by 

Alliance Press Company 

692 Eighth Avenue 

NEW YORK 



4%% 



corv b. 



Copyrighted by Alliance Press Co., 1902. 



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V 



TO 

MY WIFE 

My genial critic and sympathetic helper in its preparation 
this volume of " Quiet Hour Talks " is affectionately dedi- 
cated. 



PREFACE 



This little volume of devotional messages 
has a history which will interest the reader. 
For five years, during the school session, the 
writer has conducted in the Missionary Insti- 
tute, at Nyack, N. Y., a weekly consecration 
service for the promotion of the spiritual life 
of the students. This service is known as 
the "Quiet Hour/' and the messages are famil- 
iarly called "Quiet Hour Talks." The Quiet 
Hour is always a delightful and hallowed 
season, combining mental relaxation with spir- 
itual invigoration. 

From time to time the publication of a vol- 
ume of these devotional messages has been re- 
quested by the students and by others who have 
heard them. After much prayer this request 
is now acceded to in the hope that the spirit- 
ual blessing that has so signally attended their 
delivery will thus reach a larger circle. 



CONTENTS 

The Budding Rod 9 

The Pilgrim's Promise 16 

Freshness, Fragrance and Fruitf illness 24 

Waiting for God 33 

Light from the Word 39 

The Committed Life 47 

The Voice of the Lord 56 

Newness of Life 65 

The Vision of the Unseen 71 

Promise and Performance 78 

The Bread of Earth and the Bread of Heaven. ... 85 

The Quiet Hour 97 

One with Christ 108 

Security and Serenity 119 

The Two Laws 126 

Union and Communion 138 

The Three R's 146 

Two Omnipotent Forces 155 

Preparations of Grace 162 

Inwrought and Outwrought Prayer 171 

Light in Darkness 182 

The Cause and Cure of Religious Despondency. . .191 

The Priestly Blessing 205 

Transformed by Beholding 215 

The God of All Comfort 225 

An Expected End 235 



THE BUDDING ROD 

THE seventeenth chapter of Numbers con- 
tains the story of the rod of Aaron that 
budded. This incident vindicated the di- 
vine choice of the Aaronic priesthood and si- 
lenced rival claimants for priestly honors 
among the children of Israel. 

Of course, the budding rod is, primarily, a 
type of the priestly ministry of Christ. Our 
Lord's priesthood is of divine choice. It is a 
living priesthood. The blossoming rod symbol- 
izes the freshness, fragrance and fruitfulness 
of Christ's ministry of intercession. 

But while the budding rod of Aaron is pre- 
eminently a type of the priesthood of Christ, 
it may also be taken as a type of the interces- 
sion of believers. For we have been made 
"priests unto God" ; and it is our high calling 
and exalted privilege to fulfil in the name of 
Christ the office of intercession in behalf of 
others. 

Let us notice three lessons which this beau- 



10 The Still Small Voice 

tiful story teaches concerning the ministry of 
prayer. These are drawn from the nature of 
the rod, the place where Moses put it, and the 
degrees of its fruitfulness. 

First } The nature of Aaron's rod. 

The rod of Aaron was just like the other 
rods that were chosen. By nature it was sim- 
ply a dry stick. Josephus states that the 
twelve rods were cut from a sort of desert 
brush. The rod was a symbol of authority. It 
may be they were not cut at the time, but 
had been for generations in the possession 
of the tribes of Israel. They seem to have been 
not unlike such a stick as one might cut for a 
cane from underbrush. They were not saplings 
with roots that could be transplanted. They 
were simply dry boughs, just such a bundle of 
sticks as one would gather for burning. This 
was the character of the rod that God caused to 
flourish. 

What is the spiritual lesson? The meaning 
is that believers who are called to the ministry 
of prayer are by nature just like dry sticks. 
One is not born with ability to become an ac- 
ceptable intercessor. One does not acquire the 



Quiet Hour Talks 11 

requisite qualifications by education and cul- 
ture. One may, indeed, be gifted in prayer; 
he may be fluent and even eloquent in public 
intercession. But the life of nature can furnish 
no part of the essential qualifications for the 
ministry of prayer. It must all be of grace. 
Thus all believers stand on the same plane; 
none in the matter of prayer has any advantage 
before God. The Lord chooses dry sticks from 
which all the sap is gone. Beloved, we must 
come before God as dry sticks. It may be hu- 
miliating to take this position; but if we are 
ever to be used to bless others through prayer 
we must be willing to be emptied of everything. 
All God desires is a yielded instrument that 
He can use. All He wants is an empty channel 
through which He can pour His grace upon 
the waste places of the earth. 

Second, The place where Moses put the rod. 

Moses took the bundle of rods and laid them 
up before the Lord in the tabernacle of wit- 
ness. He placed them in the Holy of Holies. 
They lay over night in the presence of Jehovah. 
The light of the Shekinah shone upon them. 
While there the rod of Aaron was warmed into 



(2 J^- r The Still Small Voice 

supernatural life. Instead of the sap of nature 
the life of grace began to flow through the 
withered stick, when lo ! it became fruitful far 
above the fruitfulness of nature. 

What does this mean in the prayer life ? It 
means that the believer who would learn the 
divine art of intercession must enter the secret 
chamber of the Lord. He must come and 
place himself like a withered stick before the 
presence of God. As he kneels there his cold 
dead heart will be warmed into supernatural 
life. At first the springs of prayer may be 
dried up. He may be conscious of a dearth of 
spiritual desire. He may be unable to form a 
prayer in his heart or utter a prayer with his 
lips. But he has come before the throne of 
God as an intercessor; he is there by divine 
choice and appointment. As he patiently 
waits upon the Lord in silence he soon becomes 
strangely sensible of a new life enkindling his 
whole being. Spiritual desires begin to well up 
in his heart. His mind becomes centered upon 
some subject which perhaps he has not thought 
of before. He finds himself getting hold of 
God with a strangely new sense of access. 



Quiet Hour Talks 



13 



Longings and yearnings take possession of his 
heart, while words flow spontaneously from his 
lips. What does it all mean? Why, beloved, 
this is "praying in the Holy Ghost." This is 
the exercise of the ministry of intercession. 
The empty vessel is being filled with divine 
grace. The yielded instrument is being divine- 
ly used. The old stick is budding with new life. 

Third, The degrees of the rod's fruitfulness. 

Over night the rod of Aaron "brought forth 
buds and bloomed blossoms and yielded al- 
monds." The life of nature cannot mature its 
products as rapidly as the life of grace. With- 
in a few hours the entire process of vegetation 
was completed ; bud, blossom and almonds ap- 
peared on the same bough. 

What meaning has all this for us ? Surely, 
it may stand for three phases of the ministry 
of intercession. The almonds may represent 
answers to prayer. In the life of intercession 
the Lord continually fulfils his promises, and 
answers to prayer will be frequent and abund- 
ant. The blossoms may represent the things 
we are praying through with God. The al- 
mond has not appeared, but we have the bios- 



14 The Still Small Voice 

som. The answer has not come, but we have 
the assurance. The ministry of intercession 
should be filled with blossoms. Long years 
of waiting precede the answer to many prayers. 
For the conversion of one man George Mueller 
prayed over sixty years. The man was saved 
at his funeral. The delays of God develop the 
seeds of prayer and promote the growth of 
its blossoms. These seeds of prayer may be 
represented by the buds on the rod. They are 
the new subjects, the fresh themes that the 
Lord is constantly putting into our hearts and 
minds by the Holy Spirit. The prayer life 
should be planted with seeds. We must have 
the almonds ; for without answers to prayer we 
should grow faint and discouraged. We need 
the blossoms; for the exercise of prayer 
strengthens our life in God. And may the 
Lord grant us the buds as well; for new 
subjects of prayer will broaden us and keep 
us in sympathetic touch with the interests of 
Christ's kingdom. Let us not have the almonds 
at one time, the blossoms at another, and the 
buds at still another ; but let them all grow in 
our hearts together. 



Quiet Hour Talks 15 

Moreover, the budding rod not only speaks 
of fruitfulness, but also of freshness and fra- 
grance. What is so new and sweet as a bud in 
spring? What is so fresh and fragrant as a 
blossom ? What is so wholesome and nourish- 
ing as fruit? As we thus minister as priests, 
may our spirits be fresh with the dew of 
Christ's youth; may our presence be fragrant 
with the incense of the altar; and may our 
lives be fruitful through the power of prevail- 
ing prayer. 



THE PILGRIM'S PROMISE 

"And behold I am with thee and will keep thee 
whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again 
into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I 
have done that which I have spoken to thee of" 
(Gen. xxviii. 15). 

THIS verse is the pilgrim's promise. It 
was given to Jacob when he left his fa- 
ther's home in Canaan to seek his fortune 
in the land of Padan-Aram. During his long 
wanderings it insured him "journeying mer- 



cies." 



This is a good verse for the traveler and the 
tourist to guard them against accident by land 
or by water. It is a good verse for the mission- 
ary who faces peril and privation in heathen lands. 
It is a good birthday verse as one starts out to- 
ward a new mile stone in life. It is a good 
New Year's verse as one crosses the threshold 
of another cycle of time. Finally, it is a good 
life motto, for it covers all the days and years 
until our heavenly Father shall minister unto 



Quiet Hour Talks 17 

us an "abundant entrance into His everlasting 
kingdom." 

This promise is fourfold : it includes the di- 
vine presence, divine preservation, divine pre- 
diction and divine performance. 

First, The divine presence. "Behold, I am 
with thee whithersoever thou goest." God's 
presence is portable. The first manifestation 
of Jehovah to Israel was in the pillar of cloud 
and of fire. This supernatural symbol met 
the chosen people at the passage of the Red 
Sea and remained with them until the crossing 
of the Jordan. For forty years it led them 
through the desert wastes. When Israel was 
on the march, the pillar went before them; 
when the people rested in their tents it abode 
upon the tabernacle. Whether in motion or at 
rest the children of Israel were covered by the 
Shekinah glory, the symbol of God's presence 
and power. This is the divine type of God's 
spiritual presence with His people today. 

This promise is not alone for the cell and the 
cloister, but for the office and the busy marts of 
trade. We expect to find God in the closet and 
in the hour of meditation; but we shall find 



18 The Still Small Voice 

Him also in our work and as our feet hasten to 
do His bidding. We have, however, no prom- 
ise that the presence of God will be with us, if 
we go or tarry at our own pleasure ; but wher- 
ever we journey at His bidding and whenever 
we abide at His command we shall find the 
presence of the Lord with us. As if to make 
the promise stronger it is stated in both the 
negative and the positive form, "I am with 
thee" — "I will not leave thee." This certainty 
of God's abiding presence with His children 
amid all vicissitudes and in every changing 
scene, the Portuguese hymn expresses thus : 
"I'll never, no never, no never forsake." Je- 
sus said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the age." 

Second, The divine preservation. 

"I will keep thee whithersoever thou goest." 
God's providence accompanies His presence. 
The two are inseparable. Through the long 
weary years when Jacob toiled patiently for 
Leah and Rachel; through all his misunder- 
standing and disagreement with Laban; from 
the threatened attack of Esau, — during all the 
experiences of the twenty years or more that 



Quiet Hour Talks 19 

Jacob was absent from Canaan, God kept him 
from all evil. He went away empty handed 
and alone. He came back wealthy and with 
a large family. God prospered him in basket 
and in store and made him the patriarchal head 
of the family of the covenant. 

For those who are in His will the provi- 
dence of God waits to do the same today. 
But the divine keeping power cannot be claimed 
by those who essay presumptuous deeds or at- 
tempt hazardous undertakings. If Jesus had 
thrown Himself from the pinnacle of the tem- 
ple, He would have put Himself outside the 
protection of the angels of Jehovah. 

God's keeping power does not mean freedom 
from trials and affliction. We shall be assailed 
by temptation, saddened by sorrow and threat- 
ened with disaster ; but our God is a "God of 
deliverances." "Many are the afflictions of the 
righteous but the Lord delivereth him out of 
them all." Before the threatened shipwreck on 
the Adriatic God promised Paul the life of ev- 
ery one in the ship. How was the promise ful- 
filled ? Some swam ashore and others reached 
the land on spars and planks ; but — "and so it 



20 The Still Small Voice 

came to pass that they all escaped safe to the 
land." Thus God will often keep us. We 
may get bruised and battered by the way, but 
we shall reach the goal, safe and sound by His 
grace. 

Third, The divine prediction. 

God had spoken many things to Jacob. His 
birth had been ushered in by prophecy. God 
had predicted that he would be the chosen 
seed. Through him the covenant blessings of 
Abraham were to descend and bless all the na- 
tions of the earth. Moreover, God met Jacob 
at the threshold of his career ; and even in this 
chapter we find recorded words of promise to 
him. Prediction easily passes into commun- 
ion. We can be sure that the presence that ac- 
companied Jacob communed with Him by the 
way, whispering to his heart many glorious 
promises concerning the future. So the Lord 
will not only be with us and keep us, but will 
talk with us. To the believer who walks with 
God precious messages of comfort and inspira- 
tion are whispered by the Holy Spirit. The 
gloom of the pilgrim's pathway is not only 
lighted up by the Master's presence but its sol- 



Quiet Hour Talks 21 

itude is broken by the sweet and cheering ac- 
cents of His voice. Oftentimes as we plod along 
faithfully in the will of God He opens up our 
future before us until it becomes radiant with 
hope, fragrant in blessing, and fruitful in ser- 
vice. As Jacob toiled for many weary years, an 
obscure husbandman in a heathen land, his 
heart must have been cheered by the vision of 
the coming days. God may have let him see 
his son the prime minister of Egypt; and he 
must have caught a glimpse by faith of that 
Coming One of whom his own life of discipline 
and suffering was a type. So today God drops 
into our hearts seeds of promise. To many a 
humble workman at his bench and to many an 
obscure maiden in the home He is giving a vi- 
sion of the whitened harvest fields of the world, 
and burning into their hearts the conviction 
that He wants them there. 

Fourth, The divine performance. 

God's promise to Jacob was, "I will not leave 
thee until I have done all that I have spoken 
to thee of." God not only promises, He also 
performs. How gloriously He fulfilled His 
word to Jacob. He returned to Canaan in safe- 



22 The Still Small Voice 

tv ; he became the head of his father's house ; 
he lived to see Joseph prime minister of Egypt ; 
and in his closing days he predicted the com- 
ing of Shiloh. His sun went down in peace. 
So God will fulfil His promises to us. "Hath 
He spoken and shall He not do it, or hath He 
promised and shall He not make it good?" The 
Lord honored the faith of Abraham by giving 
him Isaac. Let us also believe that whatever 
he has promised us He is able also to perform. 
Beloved, if God has dropped seeds of promise 
in your heart He is going to mature them. If 
He has given you the vision He will make it 
real. If temptations come they will only 
strengthen His word. If tears of affliction fall 
they will only water it. If God has taken hold 
of you for any thing He is going to see you 
through. Circumstances cannot change God's 
plan for your life. Your own honest failures 
cannot defeat it. Satan himself cannot frustrate 
it. You will yet be able to say with Joshua, 
"Not one good thing hath failed of all that 
God hath spoken concerning me." In the hour 
of trial, in the time of discouragement, when 
disaster threatens and doubts assail, let this 



Quiet Hour Talks 23 

glorious promise cheer you, like a beacon fire 
in the darkest night : "I will not leave thee 
until I have done all that I have spoken to thee 
of." 



FRESHNESS, FRAGRANCE AND FRUIT- 
FULNESS 

"I will be as the dew unto Israel. The scent there- 
of shall be as the wine of Lebanon. From Me is thy 
fruit, found" (Hos. xiv. 5, 7, 8), 

THE literary structure of the last chapter 
of Hosea is remarkable. There are three 
speakers, — the prophet, Jehovah and 
Israel. In verses 1 and 2 the prophet addresses 
Israel. In verses 3 to 7 Jehovah speaks to His 
people. In verse 8 there is a dialogue between 
Jehovah and Ephraim, representing Israel. In 
the closing verse the prophet speaks, applying 
the truths of the chapter to believers of all 
ages. 

The chapter is rich in Oriental symbolism 
and abounds in tropical luxuriance. Amid all 
the wealth of spiritual truth there are three 
suggestive thoughts that have a practical bear- 
ing upon our deeper life in the Holy Spirit. "I 
will be as the dew unto Israel" — this speaks of 
freshness. "The scent thereof shall be as the 



Quiet Hour Talks 2 

wine of Lebanon" — this speaks of fragrance. 
"From Me is thy fruit found"— this speaks of 
fruitfulness. 

First, vSpiritual freshness. 

The dew is a source of freshness. It is na- 
ture's provision for renewing the face of the 
earth. It falls at night ; and in the early morn- 
ing the flowers of the meadow and the grass 
of the field, which have been made dull and 
dry by the dust and glare of the sun, are fresh 
and moist. In the eastern lands where the 
rainfall is slight and where there are prolonged 
seasons of drought the dew has a value which 
can scarcely be appreciated in western coun- 
tries. There it is an absolute necessity. With- 
out it the vegetation would die. 

It is this great value of the dew which is so 
often recognized in the Scriptures. It is used 
as the symbol of spiritual refreshing. Just as 
nature is bathed by the dew, so the Lord re- 
news the strength of His people. In Psalm ex. 
3 dew is employed to represent the fresh- 
ness and strength of Christ : "Thou hast the 
dew of thy youth." This renewing life He pos- 
sesses not for Himself but for His people. In 



26 The Still Small Voice 

Titus iii. 5 the same thought of spiritual fresh- 
ness is connected with the ministry of the Holy 
Ghost — "the renewing of the Holy Ghost/' This 
is the spiritual significance of the custom of 
feet washing, which gave refreshment after 
tramping through the dust and heat of the 
day (John xiii. 10). 

Many Christian workers do not recognize 
the importance of the heavenly dew in their 
lives. As a result they lack freshness and 
vigor. Their teaching is Scriptural, their la- 
bors are faithful and abundant; but somehow 
their public utterances are lifeless. Often- 
times their messages sound old and stale. The 
secret of the trouble is to be found not in 
their preaching nor in their service, but in 
themselves. Their own hearts are half fam- 
ished, yet they recognize it not. Their spirits 
are drooping for lack of dew. 

Beloved fellow worker, you recognize the 
folly of a laboring man attempting to do his 
day's work without eating. Do you not recog- 
nize the folly of a servant of God attempting 
to minister without eating of the heavenly man- 
na ? Nor will it suffice for you to have spirit- 



Quiet Hour Talks 27 

ual nourishment occasionally. Every day you 
must receive the renewing of the Holy Ghost. 
Do not attempt to serve in any capacity without 
it. Do not preach a sermon or lead a meet- 
ing or write an article or conduct an in- 
quirers' service or pray with the sick or af- 
flicted, without having your hearts laden with 
the dew of heaven. You know when you have 
not the dew, and you know when you have it. 
You know when your own spirit is exultant 
with joy and when it droops in heaviness. You 
know when your heart is rested and satisfied in 
Christ and when it is restless and hungry. You 
know when your whole being is pulsating with 
the vigor and freshness of divine life and when 
you feel jaded and worn. 

Quietness and absorption bring the dew. At 
night when leaf and blade are still, the vegeta- 
ble pores are open to receive the refreshing 
and invigorating bath. So spiritual dew comes 
from lingering in the Master's presence. Get 
in touch with God. Get quiet and still be- 
fore Him. Haste will prevent your receiving 
the dew. The dew collects only on a quiet and 
cool surface. Wait before God until you feel 



28 The Still Small Voice 

saturated with His presence. Then go forth 
to your next duty with the conscious freshness 
and vigor of Christ. 

Second, Spiritual fragrance. 

Freshness produces fragrance in both the 
natural and the spiritual world. Go into a 
summer flower garden and you will find the 
air laden with sweet perfumes. In the early 
morning, when the dew is still on bud and blos- 
som, the fragrance is sweetest. The dew brings 
both freshness and fragrance. In our spiritual 
life and in our Christian ministry fragrance is 
as essential as freshness. Where the one is ab- 
sent, there is a lack of the other. In eastern 
lands garments are often perfumed, so that 
the presence of the wearer may be fragrant. 
The Song of Songs abounds in symbolical al- 
lusions to the fragrance of the garments of 
Christ. As the priests ministered in tabernacle 
and temple the fragrance from the altar of in- 
cense filled the Holy Place. So Paul tells us 
that we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ. 
Fragrance is very subtle, but its absence or 
presence is easily detected. I always recognize 
a letter from California before I open it or see 



Quiet Hour Talks 29 

the stamp because of the fragrance of the en- 
velope. Perfume has power to awaken mem- 
ory. A stray scent on a passing breeze has 
called up scenes of earlier years. 

Now, there is about a strong personality 
something that corresponds to fragrance. 
Sometimes it is called an atmosphere. There 
is a subtle charm of personality about some 
people which is felt when entering their pres- 
ence. This is often caught and diffused by 
those who associate with them. Christ pos- 
sessed this fragrant personality in a preemi- 
nent degree. The early disciples caught and 
diffused this spiritual charm. Thus the officers 
of the Sanhedrin took knowledge of John and 
Peter that "they had been with Jesus and 
learned of Him." Spiritual fragrance is sug- 
gestive of Christ. If we live with the Master 
and walk with Him, those who associate with 
us will see something Christlike in our char- 
acter and conduct. But the charm of a fra- 
grant influence lies in the unconsciousness of 
him who exerts it. It is not necessary for us 
to know that our lives are fragrant. Indeed, to 
know it is apt at once to destroy the charm. 



30 The Still Small Voice 

Moses "wist not that his face shone." But we 
can be sure of possessing fragrance without 
knowing it or thinking about it. The fra- 
grance is not ours but Christ's. If we see to it 
that we linger much in His presence, He Him- 
self will manifest His own sweet and fragrant 
life through us. 

Third, Spiritual fruitfulness. 

The dew that brings freshness and fragrance 
also produces fruitfulness in nature and in 
grace. The bright colors and sweet perfumes 
of vegetation are only means to a higher end. 
It is thus also in the spiritual world. Freshness 
of spirit and fragrance of presence are not ends 
in themselves ; they only contribute to the high- 
er ministry of doing good. 

In nature fruit is the full maturity of the 
seed. It is the result of growth and develop- 
ment. It springs spontaneously and inevitably 
from its source. The dew may stand for all 
that vegetation needs for its full fruition, for 
light and warmth as well as for moisture and 
nourishment. So spiritual dew may represent 
all that the soul needs for its highest develop- 
ment and largest ministry. Jehovah who gives 



Quiet Hour Talks 31 

the dew and produces the fragrance also caus- 
es the fruitfulness. "From Me is thy fruit 
found." 

All Christian service is not fruit. Much of 
it springs from ourselves. Christians are called 
to service. A young convert is usually told that 
he should begin at once to work for the Lord. 
With an eager desire to do something for the 
Master and under a compelling sense of duty 
he begins to be active in Christian service. 
While the motive is right the efforts are often 
misdirected. How many there are who have 
a "zeal not unto knowledge." Many people are 
wearing themselves out working for the up- 
building of their local churches who think that 
they are thus doing effective service for Christ. 
For example, Christian women will bake cakes 
and make fancy articles for fairs and festivals 
and Christian men will buy tickets to attend 
them, with the thought that they are serving 
Christ. This may be work, but it is not fruit. 
It is wood, hay and stubble; and in the day 
that reveals all things it will be burnt up by 
fire. 
Fruit is the result of union with Christ. It 



32 The Still Small Voice 

is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is service 
given to us by the Lord. Many Christians make 
the mistake of thinking that they always must 
be doing a great deal for Christ. But it is not 
the quantity, but the quality of our service that 
counts. Ten things undertaken for Christ at 
our own prompting will count for less than 
one thing done in His name at His bidding. 
Again, fruit is not only service ; it may be suf- 
fering. In fact, fruit is anything which the life 
of Christ within us produces. It includes graces 
of character, as well as deeds of ministry. To 
do nothing when Christ bids us be still is fruit 
acceptable unto Him. "They also serve who 
-only stand and wait." 



WAITING FOR GOD 

"Blessed are all they that wait for Him" (Isa. 
xxx. 18). 

WE hear a great deal about waiting on 
God. There is, however, another side. 
When we wait on God, He is waiting till 
we are ready; when we wait for God, we are 
waiting till He is ready. There are some peo- 
ple who say and many more who believe that as 
soon as we meet all the conditions, God will 
answer our prayers. They say that God lives 
in an eternal now; with Him there is no past 
nor future ; and that if we could fulfil all that 
He requires in the way of obedience to His will, 
immediately our needs would be supplied, our 
desires fulfilled, our prayers answered. There is 
much truth in this belief; and yet it only ex- 
presses one side of the truth. While God lives 
in an eternal now, yet He works out His pur- 
poses in time. There are crises in the plan of 
redemption and in the transformation of human 
lives, when God preeminently works. Thus, 



34 The Still Small Voice 

after our first parents sinned it was at least 
four thousand years before Christ came to 
die on the cross. The Lamb had been slain 
from the foundations of the world in the pur- 
pose of God; but there had to come a "fulness 
of time" (Gal. iv. 4) before the work of re- 
demption could be accomplished. Pentecost 
occurred at a fixed time in the sovereign coun- 
sel of God. Jesus ascended nearly two thou- 
sand years ago, but the time of His return is 
still delayed. But the second advent we believe 
will be just on time according to the chronolo- 
gy of heaven. 

In the spiritual transformation of human 
lives there is a sovereign element in God's deal- 
ings. There is a time when He can work ; and 
this time is often quite independent of our spir- 
itual condition. Among others I want to men- 
tion three reasons why God waits that He may 
be gracious unto us. 

First, The development of patience. 

The Greek word rendered "patience" in the 
Xew Testament literally means "to stay " or 
"remain under." It often signifies endurance. In 
a general way the word may be said to mean 



Quiet Hour Talks 35 

the ability to wait. Patience is just waiting; and 
waiting often without knowing any reason for 
the delay. We know that in the natural world 
there is the law of growth and the process of 
development. There is seed time and harvest. 
One does not expect to gather fall apples in the 
spring; nor to pluck June roses in December. 
In the spiritual world there is also a law of 
growth and a process of development. A peti- 
tion presented before God is like a seed dropped 
in the ground. Forces above and beyond our 
control must work upon it, till the true fruition 
of the answer is given. Oftentimes when the 
desire of our heart is unfulfilled and our pray- 
ers remain unanswered we are tempted to feel 
that the reason must lie in our own hearts. Fre- 
quently it does, but not always. Have you nev- 
er been in a situation where it would be a re- 
lief to you to find something wrong in your 
life? The assurance of being right with God 
that comes when waiting before Him, you are 
almost tempted to distrust. You have practical- 
ly decided that something must be wrong, else 
the answer to your prayer would come; and 
hence you feel bound to find something. Bu1 



36 The Still Small Voice 

every season of self-examination and agonizing 
before God results in the quiet conviction that 
you are simply to rest in the Lord and wait pa- 
tiently for Him. What is the matter? Why, 
beloved, God is simply teaching you patience, 
for it is after ye have done the will of God 
that ye are to receive the promise. God is 
ripening and mellowing you. God wants you 
to be "perfect," that is, mature. He wants you 
to be "entire," that is, no part lacking. Just as 
the October sun flavors the apple, so it is the 
grace of patience that makes us a "savor of 
life" unto others. 

Second, The trial of faith. 

Another reason why God frequently delays 
the answer to our prayers is the trial of our 
faith. The word "temptations" in James i. 2 
does not mean enticements to evil, but rather 
times of testing. Of the true meaning of the 
word, God's command to Abraham to offer up 
Isaac is an illustration. Satan tempts men ; but 
God tests them. According to I. Peter i. 7 it 
is not our faith but the testing of our faith that 
is precious in God's sight. And let us remem- 
ber that it is not our faith that God tests but the 



Quiet Hour Talks 37 

faith of Christ in us. The first thing the trial 
of faith accomplishes is the breaking down of 
what little faith we have of our own. Our 
faith will not stand the strain. The test of faith 
must continue till only Christ's faith in us 
remains. I was told recently of the method out 
West by which gold is purified. It is put into 
a furnace. The fire waxes hotter and hotter, 
and is allowed to continue till the sparks stop 
flying, when the gold is purified. The flying 
sparks are the dross which is being burnt up. 
So God lets the testing fires of our faith wax 
hotter and hotter and continue till the sparks 
stop flying ; the sparks of impatience, murmur- 
ings and questions of all kinds. It is encour- 
aging to remember that the faith of Christ is a 
tested and proved faith. In the wilderness He 
met the enemy and conquered him. There is 
no possibility, consequently, that the faith of 
Christ in us will break down; God knows just 
how far we can go and just how much we can 
endure; and when He can see reflected in us 
the image of His Son He will put out the fires 
and we shall come forth as gold purified. 
Third, The last reason I will mention for 



38 The Still Small Voice 

God's frequent delays in answering our prayers 
is that through our waiting time He may get 
glory by the blessing that comes to other 
lives. In this connection it is true that no one 
liveth unto himself. There is a vital unity 
among the members of the body of Christ. It 
is a principle upon which God works, that in 
blessing one life many other lives are thereby 
enriched. If received in the right spirit, the 
waiting time before our blessing comes as well 
as the full answer to our prayers may become 
a fruitful source of help to others. Our pa- 
tient endurance, our steadfast faith, our quiet 
and hopeful confidence will inspire others to a 
similar trust in God. 

"For yet a little while and He that shall 
come will come, and will not tarry" (Heb. x. 

37). 

"Though it tarry wait for it, because it will 
surely come, it will not tarry" (Hab. ii. 3). 



LIGHT FROM THE WORD 

"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light 
unto my path" (Ps. cxix. 105). 

NO truth is more clearly revealed in the 
Scriptures than the truth of divine guid- 
ance. That the Lord has promised to 
guide His people not only in the crises of 
life but in the details of each day, no one will 
dispute. From the appearance of the pillar 
of cloud and fire at the Red Sea to the vi- 
sion of the Lamb of God leading His people by 
the side of the river of life, the Bible abounds 
in promises and illustrations of guidance. With- 
out multiplying Scripture references, we may 
adduce a few examples and passages that read- 
ily come to the mind. Abraham "went out not 
knowing whither he went;" but Jehovah led 
him through all the years of his pilgrimage. He 
made known unto Jacob His will that he should 
go into Egypt to see Joseph. He guided the 
children of Israel for forty years in that "great 
and terrible wilderness. ,, He led Elijah to the 



40 The Still Small Voice 

brook Cherith, where He fed him by ravens, 
and then to Zarephath, where He sustained him 
by a widow. Through David God has prom- 
ised, "I will guide thee with My counsel and 
afterwards receive thee to glory. I will guide 
thee with Mine eye." Through Isaiah we 
learn, "The meek will He guide in judgment, 
the meek will He teach His ways." Jesus de- 
clared, "My sheep hear My voice and they 
follow Me." Paul wrote, "As many as are 
led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of 
God." 

But while divine guidance is a precious truth 
of revelation, no subject has been more abused. 
It has led to the wildest errors in belief and the 
grossest excesses in conduct. But truth is the 
best antidote to error ; and the Scriptural expo- 
sition of a doctrine is the best corrective of the 
fanaticism or the immoral conduct to which its 
abuse may have led. Consequently, just be- 
cause divine guidance has been misunderstood 
and misrepresented it needs to be set forth in 
its true Scriptural light, safeguarded from 
error and balanced by other doctrines of reve- 
lation. 



Quiet Hour Talks 41 

The fact of divine guidance is one thing ; the 
method is quite another. Hannah Whitall 
Smith, in a tract on the subject, indicates 
four methods of divine guidance, viz., the Word 
of God, the Spirit of God, the providence 
of God, and the sanctified judgment of 
the believer. We wish to consider for 
a little divine guidance through the Word 
of God. It is not designed that this study shall 
be exhaustive of the subject ; it is intended rath- 
er to offer a few suggestions, correcting some 
errors that are popularly held, and indicating 
a few safe principles. 

First, The wrong way to get light from the 
Word. 

There is a practice quite common among 
Christians known as "cutting the Scriptures. " 
This consists in opening the Bible at random, 
allowing the eye to rest where it will on the 
page, and then taking the verse or passage thus 
discovered, as the mind of the Spirit, to be 
disobeyed with the certainty of condemnation if 
not of disaster. This is a pernicious habit, with- 
out Scriptural warrant and productive of much 
evil. It partakes of the character of the lot, 



42 The Still Small Voice 

having about it a large element of chance. It 
is true that oftentimes in this way the eye lights 
upon a verse that gives comfort or strength in 
time of sorrow or weakness. It may indeed 
happen that perchance the guidance needed 
may thus be obtained. But such instances are 
usually the result of accident; and the fact 
that they sometimes occur is apt to lend en- 
couragement to the practice. 

However, the small amount of good that 
may result from this habit is outweighed by 
the large amount of evil that is sure to follow. 
Many instances might be given of distressing, 
if not disastrous results, that have come from 
this practice. At the time of the civil war a 
young man decided the question of his enlist- 
ment in this way. He opened to the passage in 
the ninety-first Psalm, "A thousand shall fall 
at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand ; 
but it shall not come nigh thee." He told his 
friends that he would go through the war un- 
harmed. In this belief he enlisted. In the 
battle of the Wilderness he fell dead, shot 
through the heart. His family and friends 
were perplexed and half inclined to question 



Quiet Hour Talks 43 

the goodness and grace of God. There 
is a humorous illustration of the evil 
consequences with which this practice of 
cutting the Scriptures is fraught. A man 
in great despondency of heart and mind 
thus opened the Bible for light. The 
first time he turned to the passage in 
Esther where Haman was hanged on the 
gallows that he had built for Mordecai. 
Not satisfied with this Scriptural direction, he 
again cut the Word. This time he opened to 
the statement that Judas went out and hanged 
himself. Still unwilling to obey the Scrip- 
tures, he resorted a third time to this means for 
light. This time he received the reassuring 
message, "Go" thou and do likewise." Needless 
to say, he refused to obey. In disappointment 
and disgust he abandoned this method of seek- 
ing light from the Scriptures. 

This way of handling the Bible is undignified 
and irreverent. It regards the Scriptures too 
much as a fetish or a talisman. In ancient 
Israel the will of the Lord may have been read 
in the changing colors of the Urim and the 
Thummim. But today God does not reveal His 



44 The Still Small Voice 

mind by using the Word in such a superstitious 
manner. Cutting the Scriptures is of the es- 
sence of bibliolatry. 

Second, The right way to get light from the 
Word. 

The Bible is the revelation of God's will to 
man. There are occasional hints in the Scrip- 
tures of a hidden counsel or a secret will of 
God; but with these inscrutable operations of 
the divine mind we have nothing to do. "The 
secret things belong unto God; but those that 
are revealed belong unto us and unto our chil- 
dren forever." The Bible has been likened to 
many indispensable objects in life. It is a 
chart, a compass, a guidebook to show us our 
duty here on earth and to pilot us at last into 
the haven of heaven. 

It is only with the revelation of God's will 
in the Scriptures that man has to do. Paul 
enjoins us not to be unwise, but understanding 
what the will of the Lord is. How, then, shall 
we learn the mind of the Lord as revealed in 
His Word ? Not by such a capricious and un- 
certain method as has just been described. This 
is handling the Word of God deceitfully. But 



Quiet Hour Talks 45 

the contents of Holy Scripture yield them- 
selves to diligent and consistent study. This is 
handling the Word of God aright. Some- 
where within the covers of the sacred Book 
God has revealed His will either by the enun- 
ciation of general principles or by the enact- 
ment of specific laws, concerning every mat- 
ter of character and conduct. For example, 
His will in regard to our belief, conversa- 
tion, behaviour, dress, health, business, recrea- 
tion, etc., is clearly revealed in the Bible. But 
how shall we find our duty on a given sub- 
ject? By searching the Scriptures reverently 
and diligently with the best aid at our com- 
mand. Christ said : "Search the Scriptures/' 
In a spirit of submission and with a sincere 
prayer for help, with the aid of concordance 
and commentary, and above all with the help 
of the Spirit, we must study the Word. Much 
blessing will be received by him who merely 
reads the Scriptures. But the riches of the 
Word, like the hidden treasures of the earth, 
are not found on the surface ; as the diver finds 
the pearl at the bottom of the sea, and the 
miner finds the diamond in the depths of the 



46 The Still Small Voice 

earth, so he who would find the deep things 
of God must search for them in the heart of the 
Word. 

Fanaticism usually grows out of the over 
emphasis of a truth. Thus the fanatical prac- 
tice of cutting the Scriptures is the abuse of a 
legitimate and very helpful method of seeking 
light from them. After a sincere prayer for 
light and in simple dependence upon the Holy 
Spirit it is often profitable to open the Bible 
at pleasure and from the point where the eye 
rests to read on until the Spirit flashes some 
text across the mind, accompanied by the con- 
viction that it contains the desired light. Some- 
times but few verses will be read in this way ; 
at other times several chapters. 

Another way in which the Spirit guides us 
through the Word is by bringing to our re- 
membrance in times of darkness or trial pass- 
ages of Scripture that have been stored up in 
the mind. Often in prayer or in meditation the 
Spirit will thus take of the things of Christ 
and show them unto us. He is our divine 
Remembrancer who has promised to guide us 
into all truth. 



THE COMMITTED LIFE 

"For I know whom I have believed, and am per- 
suaded that he is able to keep that which I have 
committed unto him against that day" (II. Tim. i. 
12). 

THIS verse speaks of a committal of our 
lives to God, a committal that is at once 
definite, complete, and final. For years 
the writer was much perplexed about the sub- 
ject of consecration. He knew Christians who 
every time they prayed in public and in fact ev- 
ery morning (according to their own state- 
ments) reconsecrated their lives afresh to God. 
He did this himself repeatedly, yet with the 
conviction that one consecration, if intelligent- 
ly made and involving the whole life, should 
be sufficient. Providentially, a devotional 
book fell into his hands; and in a chapter on 
consecration he found the light he needed. The 
author states the matter substantially as fol- 
lows : Suppose I call on a friend and make 
him a present of a book. He will, of course, 
accept my gift with gratitude, and put the 



48 The Still Small Voice 

book on a shelf in his library. Some time, 
later, while calling on my friend, I see the 
book, perhaps lying on the table. Suppose 
now I pick up the volume and say, "My friend, 
I esteem you very highly, and would like to 
give you this little book." Naturally, my 
friend would be surprised at the repetition of 
the presentation, but would probably thank me 
again, and express his pleasure at receiving 
the book. But now suppose that I called on 
my friend six or a dozen times within a year, 
and each time picked up the book and gave it 
to him over again. Is it not likely that he 
would begin to doubt whether I really meant 
to give him the book ? And would he not per- 
haps be justified in refusing to keep the book 
under such circumstances? Then the author 
shows that this is the way Christians treat the 
Lord. They give themselves again and again 
in consecration, until it would not be surpris- 
ing if He should really question the sincerity 
of an act so often repeated. 

But some one will say, "Every day I know 
more and have more to give to the Lord. Can 
I not consecrate these new things ?" Yes ; 



Quiet Hour Talks 49 

but in giving the new things one is apt to give 
over again the old things. After all there is a 
better way; and our writer meets this very 
point. She supposes the case of one person 
giving another a plot of ground worth a cer- 
tain amount. In the course of a few years the 
value of the land is doubled and perhaps tre- 
bled. She then asks the question whether the 
increment of value does not belong to the own- 
er without making necessary any new gift. 
Of course, the question answers itself; and so 
after one has consecrated himself to the Lord 
the growth in grace and in knowledge which 
the days and the years bring form a part of 
the original consecration. New powers and 
new possessions when recognized as such have 
only to be counted as belonging to the Lord 
along with the original gift of our lives. Oh, 
beloved, cease this continual reconsecration of 
yourselves to God, and by one definite and 
complete transaction forever commit your- 
selves to Him in such a way that it need never 
be repeated. 

This little verse tells of four steps leading to 
this result. Let us notice them briefly and as 



50 The Still Small Voice 

we come to each step let us take it boldly and 
thus find ourselves forever settled and estab- 
lished in God. 

First, Believing in God. 

Paul says, "I know Him whom I have be- 
lieved." Here you will notice that belief in 
God comes before the knowledge of God. This 
is the divine order ; faith first, then knowledge. 
The particular form of believing which this 
verse presents is that it is your privilege thus 
once for all to consecrate yourself, and that 
God will receive and own forever the gift that 
you thus lay upon the altar. You must see this 
as your Scriptural right. This is the first step. 
And for the Scriptural right you need look 
no further than this very verse. Paul made 
such a disposition of his life ; and his example 
as well as his teaching it is our duty as well as 
our privilege to follow. 

Second, Knowing God. 

The knowledge of God comes after believing 
in Him. Of course there is an intellectual con- 
ception or knowledge about God which pre- 
cedes any real belief in God ; but it is not of in- 
tellectual knowledge that this verse speaks. 



Quiet Hour Talks 51 

When Paul says, "I know whom I have be- 
lieved/' he means a personal, experimental, in- 
tuitional knowledge of God as Saviour and 
Friend. Such was the knowledge of God which 
Abraham possessed when "he went out not 
knowing whither he went/' He did not know 
the way, but he did know God, and that was 
enough. Some one in Luther's presence be- 
gan to quote this verse thus : "I know in whom 
I have believed." "No, no," cried the great re- 
former, "the word 'in' is not there. I will not 
allow even a preposition to come between my 
soul and God. It says, 'I know whom I have 
believed.' ' ; If you are going to trust your 
property in the hands of a lawyer, you want to 
know him well so as to be sure of his integrity 
and honesty of character. If you are going to 
trust your body to the care of a physician, you 
want to know his sympathy and skill. So if 
you are going to commit your life and eternal 
interests to God forever, you want to know 
Him in a deeply personal way. 

Third, Committing yourself to God. 

The third step is a definite transaction. The 
word "commit" implies two parties, the syllable 



52 The Still Small Voice 

co or com meaning "with" or "together." In this 
case the two parties are God and yourself. You 
give Him something and He takes it. You lay 
yourself and all your possessions and interests 
upon the altar, and He accepts your sacrifice 
and seals it forever. That is a committal, a 
definite transaction between the Lord and your 
own heart. Remember, too, that when a trans- 
action involving two parties has taken place 
neither party can withdraw without the con- 
sent of the other. When one has definitely con- 
secrated himself to the Lord, he really cannot 
do it over again, unless the Lord either gives 
back what has been consecrated to Him or 
consents to a renewal of the consecration. Nei- 
ther of these things will the Lord do, and 
consequently this is what makes one consecra- 
tion sufficient and eternal. On the one hand, 
the Lord will surely not give back what we 
have consecrated to Him, for He has promised 
to keep that which we have committed unto 
Him "against that day." On the other hand, 
the Lord will not consent to a renewal of con- 
secration because that would mean that the 
first one was insufficient and unsatisfactory. 



Quiet Hour Talks 53 

There is only one way, therefore, that a re- 
newal of consecration can be justified and that 
is that one willfully takes himself out of the 
hands of God. Of course, if a believer stretch- 
es forth his hand and takes his gift from the 
altar, it must be replaced before God will ac- 
cept it. Such a case is possible but not proba- 
ble; in fact, no believer who walks with God 
is in any danger of thus deliberately removing 
himself from His keeping power. Paul assures 
us that nothing shall separate us from the love 
of God which is in Christ Jesus. Moreover, 
Jesus Himself said that no man is able to 
pluck us out of His hand. And as if to make 
stronger our assurance of the divine keeping 
power He added, "My Father is greater than 
I ; and no one can pluck you out of His hand." 
But while consecration should be once for 
all, its daily recognition will be a means of 
grace. Instead of giving yourselves anew to 
God every day, as you rise every morning say, 

"Lord, I am Thine, entirely Thine, 
Purchased and saved by blood divine. ,, 

If you like, look up into God's face and say a 
dozen times a day, "I am my Beloved's and my 



54 The Still Small Voice 

Beloved is mine." God will meet your loving 
trust and will sweetly respond, "I have called 
thee by thy name, thou are Mine." 

Fourth, Trust in God. 

When you have thus definitely committed 
yourself to God, you must follow up the trans- 
action by the attitude and habit of trust. Amid 
all changes of feeling or circumstances you 
must believe that the Lord is true to His word 
and keeps that which you have committed unto 
Him. This was Paul's confidence for he said, 
"I am persuaded that He is able to keep my de- 
posit." "Deposit" is the literal rendering of 
the phrase "that which I have committed." The 
figure is perhaps that of a bank into which the 
apostle had put his money. He had no fear 
that the president would default or that the 
cashier would run away with his money. When 
he left his deposit in the bank of heaven it was 
"against that day." 

The story is told of a negro who at a camp 
meeting tried to give himself to God. Every 
night at the altar he consecrated himself, but 
every night before he left the meeting the dev- 
il would come to him and convince him that he 



Quiet Hour Talks 55 

did not feel any different and therefore he 
wasn't consecrated. Again and again he was 
beaten back by the adversary. Finally, one 
evening he came to the meeting with an axe 
and a big stake. After consecrating himself 
he drove the stake in the ground just where he 
had knelt. As he was leaving the building 
the devil came to him as usual and tried to 
make him believe it was all a farce. At once 
he went back to the stake and pointing to it, 
said, "Look here, Mr. Devil, do you see that 
stake? Well, that's my witness that God has 
forever accepted me." Immediately the devil 
left him and he had no further doubts on the 
subject. 

Beloved, if you are tempted to doubt the 
finality of your consecration, drive a stake 
down somewhere and let it be your witness 
before God and even the devil that you have 
been sealed by the Holy Spirit forever. 



THE VOICE OF THE LORD 

"And the sheep hear His voice" (John x. 3). 

WHEN a believer says, "The Lord spoke 
to me," what does he mean? What is 
the voice of the Lord like? To many 
earnest Christians who believe in divine guid- 
ance these questions are perplexing. The voice 
of the Lord is not an audible sound to the out- 
er ear. As such it may have come to Abraham, 
Moses and Elijah; but in the present age the 
Lord speaks to His children by the Holy Spir- 
it. But His voice is no less real because inau- 
dible to the physical ear. There is a spiritual 
organism corresponding to our physical body 
with analogous powers and functions. Thus 
there is a spiritual eating and drinking of the 
body and blood of Christ. In like manner, 
there is a spiritual sense of hearing; and upon 
this inner organ the holy accent of the voice of 
the Lord falls. Perhaps it is not so much a 
voice as a touch ; a strange sweet sense of the 
contact of the Spirit of God with our spirit. 



Quiet Hour Talks 57 

Just as one can detect the presence of another 
in the room when he does not see him, so the 
believer whose inner spirit is sensitive and re- 
sponsive knows the Master's voice when He 
speaks. 

But how is the believer to recognize the 
voice of the Lord when he hears it? Some 
years ago a gifted spiritual writer in treating 
the subject of divine guidance stated that the 
believer must distinguish between four voices, 
viz., the voice of the Lord, the voice of the 
enemy, the voice of his own evil heart and 
the voice of the new man within him. This in- 
troduces complexity into what is in reality a 
much simpler subject. The distinction is too 
fine always to decide between the voice of the 
Lord and the voice of the new man within us 
on the one hand, and the voice of the enemy 
and the voice of our own evil heart on the oth- 
er. For the Holy Spirit so unites Himself 
with our new spirit that we can not always tell 
whether a given thought or impulse comes 
from Him or from our better natures. On the 
other hand, it is difficult always to distinguish 
between a suggestion that comes from the ene- 



58 The Still Small Voice 

my and one that is prompted by our own evil 
hearts. Indeed, the devil so insinuates himself 
into our own thoughts and feelings that what 
comes from him seems usually to proceed 
from our own hearts. He always likes to get at 
us through ourselves; and if he can project an 
impure thought into our minds or inject an un- 
holy desire into our hearts and then can suc- 
ceed in making us believe that we ourselves 
are very wicked else we would not have such 
wicked thoughts and desires, he has simply 
practiced upon us one of his devices of which 
we should not be ignorant. For this reason 
it is better to drop yourself out of the count. 
Identify all the good that seems to come from 
yourself with the Holy Spirit ; and identify all 
the evil that seems to come from yourself with 
the enemy. This will remove many difficulties 
and greatly simplify the matter. Then learn to 
distinguish between the voice of the Lord and 
the voice of the enemy. 

How then can we tell the voice of the Lord 
from the voice of the enemy ? In a word, the 
difference between the two has to be learned. 
It is a divine art to distinguish between them. 



Quiet Hour Talks 59 

Just as the ear of the musician has to be trained 
to distinguish between musical notes, so the 
ear of the believer has to be exercised to discern 
the voice of the Lord. It is said that an or- 
chestral leader not only can instantly detect a 
discord but can also recognize the instrument 
that makes it. So the disciplined and chas- 
tened ear of the believer soon learns to de- 
tect the voice of strangers. But there are 
no fixed rules by which the child of God can 
invariably decide this matter. One has to learn 
by mistakes. An Irishman who professed to 
know all the shoals and sunken rocks in 
a dangerous channel was hired as a pilot. All 
went along pretty well for a short time when 
suddenly the boat roughly bumped against a 
sunken rock. The captain said, "Mike, I 
thought you knew all the rocks and shoals in 
this channel." "Shure, and I do," said the pilot, 
"and that's one of them." So like the Irish pi- 
lot we learn of the existence of many sunken 
rocks in our path by striking them. The writer 
has run against a few snags and would mark 
them with red lights for the guidance of oth- 
ers. 




60 The Still Small Voice 

In the first place, the voice of the enemy is 
exciting and produces a spirit of restlessness 
and rush. On the other hand, the voice of the 
Lord is quieting and produces r a spirit of rest 
and peace. This is a good test to distinguish 
between God's voice and Satan's voice. When 
the devil speaks he sets you in a big whirl. 
When the Lord speaks He produces tranquility 
of heart and mind. Even when the Lord's 
voice is corrective, it does not disturb the calm 
serenity of your communion. At the same time 
that the Lord tells you of your fault, He show r s 
you the blood that will wash it away. When 
He whispers that you have grieved Him He 
accompanies the message by a sweet sense of 
His tenderness and love. To be chastened by 
the Lord is in itself a blessing. The accents of 
the Lord's voice, like those of a mother, are 
soothing and comforting. On the other hand, 
the devil fills you with condemnation without 
revealing the blood of cleansing. He tries to 
make you see the dark picture of your evil 
heart, but gives you no bright vision of Jesus. 
The devil stirs you up as a stick does a mud 
puddle. He harasses your mind and discour- 



Quiet Hour Talks 61 

ages your heart. He fills you with distraction 
and desperation until you hardly know what 
to do. When you feel this way it is the devil 
talking to you. There is no doubt about it. On 
such occasions you need not hesitate for a mo- 
ment. Turn a deaf ear to the harsh and ex- 
asperating tones of the cruel taskmaster, and 
listen to the soft and soothing accents of your 
beloved Lord. 

In the second place, the enemy always wants 
you to be in a great hurry in deciding a matter, 
and tries to condemn you for any delay. On 
the other hand, the Lord always gives you time 
to think it over and then come to a decision. 
In the question of guidance the voice of the 
Lord leads, while the voice of the enemy 
drives; the enemy pushes while the Lord gen- 
tly impels us. "He led them on safely so that 
they feared not." To some extent quickness or 
slowness of decision may be a matter of tem- 
perament; but as a general thing the enemy 
will try to make you act upon impulses rather 
than upon settled principles. He will try to 
make you rush right off and do a thing before 
you know which is the right course to pursue ; 




62 The Still Small Voice 

whereas the Lord will always give you plenty 
of time to know His will. Take a year rather 
than act prematurely. A man once called at 
the home of George Mueller and declared that 
he must see him at once about a matter af- 
fecting wide interests in the cause of Christ. 
Mr. Mueller was engaged at the time and sent 
word that he would see the man on the follow- 
ing day. But the stranger protested that he 
could not wait, that thousands of dollars 
might be lost before the morrow. In reply Mr. 
Mueller said that if the matter could not wait 
twenty-four hours he had better not touch it 
at all. If the matter was of God it would 
keep that long. The next day at the appointed 
time the man returned and declared that the 
whole thing was a snare of the enemy. He 
was very grateful to Mr. Mueller for, his wise 
counsel. 

Remember, beloved, that there is no condem- 
nation where there is no light. As long as you 
can honestly say that you are not sure of the 
Lord's mind in a matter, it is better to defer 
any action. Remember Josh Billings' advice, 
"When you don't know what to do, don't do 



Quiet Hour Talks 63 

it." But be careful not to wait after you know 
the right path. Condemnation begins the mo- 
ment there is sufficient light to act. Hesitation 
after one knows God's will is disobedience. 

In his earlier experiments with wireless teleg- 
raphy Marconi discovered that a message in- 
tended for a certain point might be intercepted 
and thus reach a wrong destination. He 
found that there was nothing to prevent several 
receivers at different points from taking a mes- 
sage from a given transmitter. In times of 
war this would lead to embarrassment, as an 
enemy might receive private dispatches and 
thus get possession of state secrets. To over- 
come this difficulty Marconi tuned to each oth- 
er a transmitter and a receiver. In this way 
no other receiver could take a given message. 
This invention can be easily understood by a 
simple experiment. If one stands near a piano 
and strikes a note with his voice, he will hear 
a sympathetic response from a certain string in 
the instrument. If the pitch of the voice be al- 
tered a different note will be heard. No other 
string will respond except the one in tune with 
the voice. So, beloved, if vou would learn the 



64 The Still Small Voice 

secret of the Lord's voice get in tune with it. 
Get so adjusted to Him that your heart will 
not respond to anything that comes from the 
evil one. If we do hear the voice of the enemy 
it will produce a jar and a discord that will 
serve as a warning to us. Stephen Merritt 
says that when the devil tries to imitate the 
Lord's voice there is always a cackle about it 
which the discerning believer can detect. The 
tuning will not all come at once; it will take 
time. The Lord may have to thumb and 
screw our lives as a musician does a stringed 
instrument. When He first speaks, we may not 
recognize His voice ; but if we patiently listen 
with a spirit ready instantly to obey He will 
teach us the accent of His voice and thus we 
shall learn to "walk by the Spirit." 



NEWNESS OF LIFE 

"Know ye not that so many of us as were bap- 
tized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into 
death : that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life" (Rom. vi. 3, 4). 

THE sixth, seventh and eighth chapters of 
Romans constitute a distinct section in 
the unfolding of the argument of the 
epistle, and may be described as an exposition 
of the new life in Christ. The thought of the 
apostle in the opening verses of the sixth chap- 
ter is — our freedom from the dominion of sin 
through our judicial union with Christ in His 
death and resurrection. In the purpose of 
God we died and rose again with Christ. 
Through the ordinance of Christian baptism, 
and by the exercise, on our part, of a lively 
faith in the operation of God (Col. ii. 12) our 
oneness with Christ in His death and resurrec- 
tion is made real. The glorious result in actual 
experience is a moral state, in which it is the 



66 The Still Small Voice 

purpose of God that "we should walk in new- 
ness of life." 

In the New Testament there are two Greek 
adjectives translated "new" : one is neos, ex- 
pressing what is new in time, i. e., recent or 
young; the other is kainos, expressing what is 
new in substance and quality, i. e., the noun de- 
scribed by its adjective is itself new. The word 
"newness" in the phrase "newness of life" is a 
noun formed from the latter adjective, and ex- 
presses "a new condition of moral life." The 
only other occurrence of this word in the New 
Testament is in chapter vii. 6 of this epistle, 
where the meaning is the same, viz., "the new 
state of life in which the Holy Spirit places us." 
The meaning of both the Greek adjectives, 
however, seems to be conveyed by this noun, 
i. e., newness in substance and in form. 

It is within the power of language not only 
to express thought, but also to present pictures 
to the mind. One word will often suggest a 
whole scene. Around many words, such as 
"mother," "home," "fatherland," precious mem- 
ories and tender associations cluster. The phrase 
"newness of life" is of this character. Like the 



Quiet Hour Talks 67 

fragrance of the empty rose- jar, like a balmy 
breath of spring in midwinter, like a stray 
gleam of sunshine on a cloudy day, this ex- 
pression, "newness of life," suggests all the 
characteristics and blessed privileges of the 
life "hid with Christ in God." Let us notice 
some of them : 

First, The source of the life is itself new. 

It is Christ (Col. iii. 4). We are accounted 
by God as dead to our old life, and as alive to 
Christ forevermore. This is the new attitude 
which we are commanded to take by simple 
faith (Rom. vi. 11). As we steadfastly reckon 
this to be true, God makes it real in us. We are 
inseparably united to Christ as the new source 
of our life (Eph. v. 30). 

Second, The life itself is new. 

It is eternal life. Eternal life is not prima- 
rily a matter of duration, but of quality. It is a 
new kind of life (John xvii. 3). At regener- 
ation we are introduced into a new world. We 
are said to be new creatures in Christ Jesus 
(II. Cor. v. 17). The Bible becomes a new 
book. The world itself seems changed. "Old 



68 The Still Small Voice 

things are passed away : behold, all things are 
become new." 

Third, Newness of life is fresh and unworn. 

It is life for the day. Like physical life, the 
new life in Christ, though continuous, must 
be sustained by nourishment. Christ is not 
only the Source of our life, but we must feed 
upon Him by faith in our hearts, moment by 
moment (John vi. 53-57). He is the very at- 
mosphere which we breathe (Acts xvii. 28). 

Fourth, Newness of life is spontaneous and 
overflowing. 

It is springing life (John iv. 14). The 
Psalmist sang, "All my springs are in Thee" 
(Ps. lxxxvii. 7). God wants us to have the 
springing life of childhood and the enthusiasm 
of youth. He promises that our "youth shall 
be renewed" (Hebrew, "restored"), "like the ea- 
gle's" (Isaiah xl. 31). Of Christ it was writ- 
ten, "Thou hast the dew of Thy youth" (Ps. 
ex. 3). If we have Christ, we shall have a 
young heart, ready for service or sacrifice at 
His bidding. 

Fifth, Newness of life is fruitful. 



Quiet Hour Talks 69 

It not only displays itself in happy feelings, 
but expends its energy in work for Christ. It 
is preeminently a life of service (John xv. 16). 
Our fulness of blessing is for others and can- 
not be restrained. Often in reaching the needs 
of others it will cut new channels for itself. 

Sixth, Newness of life is completeness of 
life. We are complete in Him (Col. ii. 10). 
Consciousness witnesses to the oneness of our 
personal life. We cannot tell where the spirit 
ends, and the soul begins, or where the soul 
ends and the body begins. We cannot partly 
die with Christ, and partly remain alive to sin. 
As a person, a tripartite unity (I. Thess. v. 23), 
we yield ourselves as dead and alive unto God 
in Christ Jesus. Thus Christ lives out His own 
life in us. We are partakers of His Spirit (I. 
Cor. vi. '17). He shares His mind with us (I. 
Cor. ii. 16). He unites our bodies to His res- 
urrection body and quickens them by the Holy 
Spirit (Eph. v. 30; Rom. viii. 11). 

Seventh, Newness of life is a life of glory. 

The apostle tells us that "Christ was raised 
up from the dead by the glory of the Father," 
and that likewise we are to "walk in newness 



70 The Still Small Voice 

of life." In other words we are to walk in new- 
ness of life "by the glory of the Father." The 
motive power of the new life is not our will or 
anything we can do, but "the glory of the Fa- 
ther." God Himself who raises us from the 
dead in Christ, enables us evermore to walk 
"in newness of life." The life of glory is resur- 
rection life of which even here we may have the 
earnest in the "life hid with Christ in God." 



THE VISION OF THE UNSEEN 

"For he endured, as seing Him who is invisible" 
(Heb. xi. 27). 

THERE is a secret that explains every life. 
Whenever a prominent man dies his ca- 
reer is always written up. An effort is 
made to find out the secret of his successful 
life. It seems to be taken for granted that a 
person does not achieve distinction by acci- 
dent. In Hebrews xi. we have recorded the 
secret of the lives of many of the Old Testa- 
ment saints. Abel was justified by faith in the 
coming Redeemer. Enoch walked with God in 
holiness of character and life. In the midst of 
a "crooked and perverse generation," Noah 
lived a life of separation from evil and devo- 
tion unto God. The secret of Abraham's 
life was his obedience to God. Thus we 
might point out the key to the lives of Isaac, 
Jacob, Joseph and many others. In the text 
the apostle gives us the secret of Moses' life. 
We read, "He endured as seeing Him who is 



72 The Still Small Voice 

invisible." Moses had a vision of the unseen. 
Some time, perhaps at the burning bush or on 
Mount Sinai, Moses got a glimpse of the invis- 
ible world. More than this, he saw God, and 
the vision transformed his life and enabled him 
to endure the trials and disappointments of 
Egypt and the wilderness. , 

First, The existence of the unseen. 

Life is a mystery. This world of sense is 
surrounded by another which cannot be seen, 
but which is real. Every thoughtful person 
realizes that "the things which are seen are 
temporal, but the things which are not seen are 
eternal" (II. Cor. iv. 18). Many things which 
we prize most cannot be known fully by the 
physical senses. Confidence, truth, faith, love 
and other vital and essential facts, are spirit- 
ual in their nature and expression. This un- 
seen yet real world seems to be shut out from 
us by a thin veil. Sometimes we can almost 
penetrate it and we feel like brushing aside the 
film that obstructs our gaze. 

Second, The vision of the unseen. 

In all ages men have tried to penetrate this 
unseen world. In olden times wise men at- 



Quiet Hour Talks 73 

tempted to unlock the secrets of the future by 
means of alchemy, magic and other crude de- 
vices. Today spiritualism, theosophy, hypno- 
tism and other occult systems are futile efforts 
to unravel the mysteries of life. The advance- 
ments of science in invention and discovery are 
the only trustworthy knowledge we have of the 
secrets of life. 

The unseen world cannot be fully known by 
investigation. Much, however, may be learned 
by experiment. But only the fringes of the 
invisible can be grasped by the reason of 
man. Revelation is the only method by which 
the finite can come to the knowledge of the in- 
finite. In all ages God has at times drawn the 
curtain aside and given His people a view of 
the unseen and future world. More than this, 
He has revealed Himself unto His servants. 
No life can be strong and fruitful without this 
vision of God. 

It was because Abel got a view of Calvary 
that he presented his lamb and was justified 
by faith. Enoch was the first witness to 
Christ's second coming (Jude 14). It was his 
vision of the millennial glory of Christ that 



74 The Still Small Voice 

enabled him to walk with God three hundred 
years. Thus it might be shown that every per- 
son whose name is recorded in this chapter had 
a vision of God, and it was this fact that made 
their lives strong and fruitful. 

There are certain conditions which must be 
met if we would have a vision of the unseen. 
One of these is spiritual sight. For physical 
vision sight is as necessary as light. If there is 
no eye to receive the light objects cannot be 
seen. So there must be spiritual sight before 
we can see the invisible. Sin has blinded our 
eyes and darkened our hearts (II. Cor. iv. 4). 
The Holy Spirit will give us sight as well as 
light. Thus Paul prayed for the Ephesians 
that they might receive the spirit of wisdom 
and revelation in the knowledge of God, the 
eyes of their understanding be opened (i. 17, 
18). We next receive this organ of spiritual 
vision. We must have this inner sense of touch 
which responds to the spiritual world around 
us. 

Again, waiting upon God is necessary in or- 
der to see Him. The time element in vision 
is essential. We all remember the old process 



Quiet Hour Talks 75 

of photography when we often had to sit before 
the camera a half a minute in order to have a 
picture taken. Modern photography is instan- 
taneous in its working. But there is no new 
process in spiritual photography. Our hearts 
are like a sensitive plate and in order to have 
God revealed there we must sit at His feet a 
long time. The troubled surface of a lake will 
not reflect an object. Our lives must be quiet 
and restful if we would see God. 

Third, The influence of the unseen. 

There is power in the sight of some things 
to affect one's life. Persons have gone insane 
from witnessing murder. Violent people have 
become gentle from seeing a person engaged in 
prayer. A quiet sunset will bring peace to a 
troubled heart. Thus the vision of God always 
transforms human life. Jacob saw God at 
Jabbok's ford and became Israel. The vision 
of God transformed Gideon from a coward into 
a valiant soldier. The vision of Christ changed 
Thomas from a doubting follower into a loyal, 
devout disciple. But men have had visions of 
God since Bible times. William Carey saw 
God and left his shoemaker's bench and went 



76 The^Still Small^Voice 

to India. William Cassidy got a vision of God 
and went to China. He died before he reached 
there, but he became our first missionary to the 
Celestial Empire. Hundreds of noble conse- 
crated young people at our Missionary Insti- 
tute have received a vision of God and today 
are in the uttermost parts of the earth, working 
for the evangelization of the heathen and the 
speedy coming of our Lord. 

We all need a vision of God. Two things 
especially it will give us : 

i. The true perspective in life. 

We all recognize the value of perspective in 
art. Without it a picture would have no back- 
ground or foreground. A life without per- 
spective is muddled and indistinct. It lacks ex- 
pression and impression. The vision of God 
focuses our lives. All the lines of a Christian 
life should converge on the second coming of 
Christ. To this glorious event everything 
should contribute. So many people live aimless 
lives. They are drifting. They have no ob- 
ject in life save the enjoyment of the present 
moment. Seeing God will give an aim to our 
lives. 



Quiet Hour Talks 77 

2. The highest inspiration in life. 

Nothing inspires the heart like a vision of 
God. It freshens one's life and gives one en- 
thusiasm in service. There is danger lest our 
spiritual life may become dull and monotonous. 
Physical energy soon becomes exhausted. A 
sense of duty alone will not make service for 
Christ a joy. But a vision of God by the eye 
of faith will make our Christian life energetic, 
enthusiastic and fruitful. An ancient scientist 
said that he would move the world with his lev- 
er if he could find a place for his fulcrum. So 
we will move the world for Christ if we can 
find strength and enthusiasm for our task. 
The vision of God will furnish the inspiration 
we need. 



PROMISE AND PERFORMANCE 

"He spake and it was done ; He commanded and it 
stood fast" (Ps. xxxiii. 9). 



I 



N human affairs promise and performance 
are so often disassociated that it is high 
praise to say of a man that "his word is as 
good as his bond." But even where perfect 
veracity exists unforeseen circumstances may 
prevent one from carrying out his word. With 
God, however, promise and performance are 
inseparable. What the Lord says, that He will 
do. "Hath God spoken and shall He not do it ; 
hath He promised and shall He not make it 
good?" "Heaven and earth shall pass away, 
but My word shall not pass away." 

But with God, not only are promise and ful- 
filment inseparable, the two are one. Promise 
is performance. Not only is God's word sure ; 
it is in itself achievement. "He spake and it 
was done; He commanded and it stood fast." 
The speaking was the doing; the thing stood 
fast in the command. 



Quiet Hour Talks 79 

This was true in creation. The immediate 
reference of this verse is to the work of God in 
creation. The divine record is, "God said, Let 
there be light * * * * and there was light." The 
utterance of the word of command brought 
light into existence. In Hebrews we are told 
that the world was made by the word of God. 
This may indeed refer to Christ, for the spok- 
en word is the symbol of the Incarnate Word. 

Again, this is true in redemption. One of 
Christ's last words on the cross was, "It is fin- 
ished." This refers to the completeness of His 
work of redemption. To the finished work 
wrought by our Saviour nothing has since been 
added, nor could anything be added. "By the 
one offering He forever perfected them that 
are sanctified." Of course, we must distin- 
guish between the eternal purpose of God and 
the outworking of that purpose in time. Strict- 
ly speaking, it is only with respect to the eternal 
purpose of God that we can predicate complete- 
ness. As yet the outworking of the divine 
plan is incomplete. 

Furthermore, this is true in Christian expe- 
rience. In the believer's growth in grace and in 



80 The Still Small Voice 

the knowledge of Jesus Christ this inseparable- 
ness between the divine promise and the divine 
performance is manifest. In every promise of 
God there is a latent performance. It only re- 
mains for faith to claim its present fulfilment. 
In a sense faith may be said to be the power 
that converts promise into performance. 

There is a beautiful illustration of this prin- 
ciple in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis. 
The incident may be called the tenses of faith. 
The interview between Jehovah and Abram is 
graphic and vivid; and when rightly under- 
stood possesses thrilling power. In verse two 
Jehovah declares that He will make His cove- 
nant with Abraham. It is a definite promise 
and in the future tense. The patriarch believed 
the Lord and fell on his face in adoration and 
gratitude. With reference to the present inci- 
dent this was Abram's first step of faith. But 
in verse four the Lord declares, "My cove- 
nant is with thee." This was moving out of 
the future tense into the present. However, as 
the patriarch knew 7 the Lord, there is no doubt 
that he met Him in the present and believed the 
divine word. This was Abram's second step 



Quiet Hour Talks 81 

of faith. But there was a third step. In the 
following verse Jehovah declares, "A father of 
many nations have I made thee." This time the 
Lord moved out of the present tense into the 
past tense. Promise had become performance. 
The thing spoken was done; and now it only 
remained for Abram to put his seal to the 
transaction. But the patriarch did not falter. 
With firm tread he took the third and last step 
of faith. He received the new name of Abra- 
ham as the seal that what God had promised 
He was able also to perform. Every time he 
used the name Abraham it was his confession 
that so far as he was concerned God's promise 
was as good as fulfilled. 

We are told that we are the children of faith- 
ful Abraham, if we walk in his footsteps. This 
is one of the steps of faith that Abraham took. 
Beloved, God is trying to get us to stand where 
Abraham stood. True faith always takes its 
stand in the past tense — that God has already 
done the thing He has promised. 

This is the only way we got our salvation. 
We came before God as sinners, and believed 
His word that we were saved by the death of 



82 The Still Small Voice 

Christ on the cross. By faith we simply took 
the reconciliation with God that was already 
ours. As we believed without waiting for feel- 
ing, the guilt of sin was removed and a sense 
of peace came into our souls. 

Again, this is the only way the afflicted one 
ceive the Holy Spirit. He must believe that 
Christ died to deliver him not only from the 
guilt but also from the power of sin. He must 
not only see his inheritance but claim it by 
faith. As he thus takes his stand in the past 
tense and believes that God has bestowed upon 
him the gift of the Holy Spirit, it will all be 
made real in his experience. 

Again this is the only way the afflicted one 
can get his healing. At first perhaps he be- 
lieves that the Lord will heal him. But this is 
only the future tense of faith. It usually re- 
sults in the postponement of the blessing if 
not in failure to receive it. Next, he may ven- 
ture to believe that the Lord undertakes his 
case. This is the present tense of faith. It 
indicates progress, but does not insure victory. 
The sufferer must take one more step. He 
must move from the present tense into the past 



Quiet Hour Talks 83 

tense of faith. He must boldly claim that the 
work is done. He must say without waiting 
for signs of improvement, "I am every whit 
whole in the finished work of Christ." As he 
steadfastly maintains this aggressive attitude, 
God will make faith reckonings blessed reali- 
ties. 

Beloved, the past tense of faith is the only 
place of rest and victory. The future tense 
amounts only to hope. Faith is simply saying 
"Amen" to what God says. If the Lord has 
spoken anything to you, remember that it is 
done. You may not see it yet, but it is done 
just the same. For example, if the Lord has 
told you that He wants you in China, begin to 
count yourself there now. Live in China in 
your love, in your interests, and in your pray- 
ers. Look at everything that happens from 
the China side. Try to see everything as you 
will see it when you are really there. This will 
cheer you in the waiting time. It will save you 
from discouragement. It will enable you to 
discount your trials and temptations. It will 
bring joy where there is sorrow, strength where 
there is weakness, rest where there is con- 



84 The Still Small Voice 

flict, and victory where there might otherwise 
be defeat. 

Over against every promise that the Lord 
enables you to claim write in golden letters, 
"He spake and it was done; He commanded 
and it stood fast." 



THE BREAD OF EARTH AND THE 
BREAD OF HEAVEN 

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hun- 
ger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest 
not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might 
make thee know that man doth not live by bread 
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deut. viii. 3). 

TO every careful reader of the story of Exo- 
dus the question will naturally occur, 
When the land of Canaan lay so near 
Egypt by caravan route, why did the Lord lead 
His people so many years in the trackless 
wastes of the desert? In part the answer is, that 
by going through the land of the Philistines the 
souls of the people would have been discour- 
aged by war (Ex. xiii. 17). Again, thirty- 
eight of the forty years' wanderings are ex- 
plained by the fact that the Lord kept Israel in 
the wilderness until the generation that failed 
to enter the Promised Land at His command 
had perished. But there was a deeper reason 
for the long sojourn of the chosen people in 



86 The Still Small Voice 

the desert. At the time of the Exodus the Is- 
raelites formed little more than an unorganized 
horde. Generations of bondage had dulled 
their minds and made them indifferent to spir- 
itual things. They were the chosen people, but 
did not have much knowledge of the Lord God 
of their fathers. Thev had inherited the cov- 
enant promises, but did not fully understand 
and appreciate them. The people lacked moral 
discipline. They needed spiritual instruction. 
They were not fit to inherit the Promised Land. 
Now, the wilderness life was intended to give 
them the necessary preparation. It was a 
school of moral discipline and of religious ex- 
perience. Here they were taught to know God 
and trained to trust Him. In the words of the 
text, the Lord "humbled them and suffered 
them to hunger and fed them with manna 
which they knew not neither did their fathers 
know; that He might make them know that 
man doth not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the 
Lord doth man live." 

The wilderness life of Israel is in many ways 
typical of our earthly pilgrimage. The lessons 



Quiet Hour Talks 87 

the Lord taught the Israelites then, He is try- 
ing to teach His people now. The spiritual 
significance of the pillar of cloud and fire, the 
wells of Elim, the manna, the smitten rock and 
other wilderness experiences of Israel is to 
teach us to turn away from natural resources 
and find in God the true Source of our life for 
spirit, soul and body. All these things hap- 
pened unto them for ensamples, and they are 
written for our admonition upon whom the 
ends of the world are come (I. Cor. x. n). 

In His conflict with the devil in the wilder- 
ness Jesus appropriated the words of the text 
to Himself (Matt. iv. 4; Luke iv. 4). The les- 
son they teach was not for the Israelites alone 
but for believers in all ages. 

Perhaps a paraphrase of the text will bring 
out its meaning into clearer light : The Lord 
does not want us to live wholly on the natural 
plane, nor wholly on the supernatural plane; but 
He wants us to live on a plane where the natur- 
al and supernatural are alike recognized and 
harmoniously blended. 

We have two divine illustrations of this rec- 
ognition and blending of natural and super- 



88 The Still Small Voice 

natural elements, viz., the character of the Bi- 
ble and the person of Christ. 

In many respects the Bible rests on the nat- 
ural plane. It is an intensely human Book. It 
is the work of about forty different writers, 
and was composed during a period of about fif- 
teen hundred years. It contains history, poet- 
ry, prophecy, doctrine and truth in many other 
forms. The characters it describes are human 
and their utterances and actions are defective 
and often sinful. The heart is painted true to 
life with all its lights and shadows. In all the 
range of literature no work more intensely hu- 
man can be found. But the Bible is a super- 
natural Book. It is the Word of God, divine, 
inspired, infallible. Its different writers were 
animated by the Holy Spirit. One plan, one de- 
sign marks the Scriptures, so that the different 
parts though composed in various countries and 
under widely differing conditions fit together 
to form one symmetrical and harmonious vol- 
ume. Antitype succeeds type, and history ful- 
fils prophecy. There is progression without 
variance of teaching, and variety without con- 
flict. The remarkable fact is that the natural 



Quiet Hour Talks 89 

and supernatural elements of Scripture blend 
imperceptibly together. There is no evidence 
of mechanical manipulation; there is no dis- 
coverable line of cleavage. The two do not 
stand side by side, but interpenetrate and 
coalesce. The human letters of the Book spell 
out the divine words of life. Any attempt to 
separate the two destroys both. 

The other divine illustration is the person of 
Christ. In Him as in the Scriptures the natur- 
al and the supernatural, the human and the 
divine, are united. He who was Jesus of Naz- 
areth was also the Son of God. Jesus was in- 
tensely human. Evidence of this was His birth 
of a virgin, His experiences of hunger, thirst 
and weariness, and His death on the cross. 
But Jesus was divine. Evidence of this was 
His own witness and His Father's testimony, 
the miracles He wrought, and the sins He for- 
gave, and the worship He received from His 
followers. The two natures in Christ were in- 
separable, imperceptibly united in one person- 
ality. In every thought, word and deed of our 
Lord these two natures were present, not act- 



90 The Still Small Voice 

ing independently of each other, but united in 
personal oneness. 

These illustrations will help us to understand 
the true plane of Christian living, — the plane 
that does not ignore the bread of earth, yet 
recognizes the necessity of feeding upon the 
bread of heaven. It is true that the Bible is in- 
spired and Christ is divine, and that for this 
reason they are unique and stand in a class by 
themselves, not to be compared with human ex- 
periences or things of this earth. And yet in 
the normal Christian life there should be a 
recognition and a blending of both the natural 
and the supernatural not unlike that found in 
the personality of Christ. In becoming a child 
of God the believer does not cease to be a son 
of Adam. At the same time that he is indwelt 
by the Holy Spirit he is dependent upon earth- 
ly resources. In entering upon the sphere of 
the Church and its heavenly relations he does 
not withdraw himself from the world with its 
business obligations. His citizenship is indeed 
in heaven, but with earth he still has a rela- 
tionship ; his obligations to God do not release 
him from his duties to man. Jesus recognized 



Quiet Hour Talks 91 

these two relationships when He said : "Render 
unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and 
unto God the things that are God's." But in 
the life of the believer these two distinct ele- 
ments do not exist side by side but blend togeth- 
er. Christianity is not like a suit of clothes 
which one can wear on Sunday and discard oth- 
er days. He who is a man of God on the Lord's 
day can not become a man of the world the rest 
of the week. In a word the Spirit of Christ 
transforms the character and transfigures the 
life. Every relationship and every duty is per- 
meated by the new leaven of the Gospel. 

But now having glanced at the true nature 
of Christian life as a whole, let us take one or 
two phases of the believer's experience in 
which the words of the text will find practical 
application. 

First, Divine guidance. 

In the matter of divine guidance there are 
people who are seeking to live by the bread 
of earth alone. By their lives they practically 
deny the truth of guidance by supernatural 
means. Of course, in a general way they be- 
lieve that the Scriptures throw light on the 



92 The Still Small Voice 

path of life. But they maintain that the Lord 
has given us minds for the purpose of self-di- 
rection. They argue that He would not have 
endowed us with wisdom and judgment if He 
had not intended us to use them as occasion re- 
quires. They rely upon their prudence and com- 
mon sense. They hold that the Lord does not 
speak personally to His people now ; and con- 
sequently, all talk about the voice of the Lord 
and supernatural revelations of the Spirit they 
regard as fanaticism. 

But there is another class of persons who 
are trying to live entirely upon the bread of 
heaven. They ignore the wisdom and judg- 
ment God has given them. They make light 
of prudence and caution. They do not seem 
even to exercise common sense. They believe 
in being guided in everything by spiritual vi- 
sions and supernatural revelations. They 
want a special communication before they will 
do anything. 

Now both these positions are extreme. There 
is truth in both views which should be recog- 
nized. The Lord surely wants us to use the 
wisdom, judgment and common sense which 



Quiet Hour Talks 93 

He has given us. But He wants us also to be- 
lieve that He Himself will guide us by His 
Spirit. And yet we should not trust our own 
minds in a purely natural way. We should 
take the mind of Christ so that His wisdom will 
be ours. One may be so filled with the Spirit 
that his thoughts, desires and actions will be 
under divine control. Thus it will not always 
be possible to distinguish between the dictates 
of our own judgment and the promptings of 
the Holy Spirit within us. Probably in most 
of the ordinary affairs of life the Lord thus 
guides us by the unconscious control of our 
mental operations. Yet in important matters 
He will let us hear His voice. In critical sea- 
sons of darkness and perplexity He will grant 
us the inner vision. It is unwholesome to live 
in an atmosphere where one is constantly look- 
ing for supernatural indications of God's will 
in his personal life. If we are always look- 
ing for visions we may indeed see them; but 
they may not come from God. If we are al- 
ways listening for voices we may indeed hear 
them ; but they may not come from the Lord. 
One is more apt to get a vision from the Lord 



94 The Still Small Voice 

when he is not looking for it ; and one is more 
likely to hear the Lord's voice when he is not 
expecting it. Let us place our lives so com- 
pletely under divine control that whether the 
Lord vouchsafes a supernatural visitation or 
requires us to trust Him without it, we shall be 
satisfied so long as we know that "Jesus 
leads." 

Second, Physical healing. 

In the matter of physical healing there are 
people who are living by the bread of earth 
alone. By their lives they practically deny 
God's control and care of their bodies. They 
believe in the salvation of the soul and in the 
sanctification of the spirit ; and they understand 
the deeper life in the Holy Ghost. But some- 
how they have not seen God's provision for 
our physical life. While they recognize health 
as the gift of God they rely for its preservation 
upon their own care and prudence. Of course, 
when sick they ask God's blessing upon the 
means used for their restoration. 

But there is another class of persons who are 
trying to live by the bread of heaven alone. By 
their lives they practically deny the place and 



Quiet Hour Talks 95 

value of precaution or care in the preservation 
of health. For their physical strength they de- 
pend wholly upon supernatural agencies. They 
maintain that because they trust God for their 
body it is not necessary to be careful about 
diet or exercise or sleep. They have no use 
for rules of hygiene or laws of health. They 
will sit in a draught and expect God to keep 
them from taking cold. They will go out in a 
rainstorm without overshoes or umbrella and 
trust the Lord to keep them from ill effects. 

Now both these positions are extreme. There 
is truth in both views. Here again the natural 
and the supernatural should blend. The divine 
care of our bodies is a precious truth of reve- 
lation. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy 
Ghost. Healing is promised when we are sick 
and physical strength is maintained by the 
quickening of the indwelling Spirit. Yet there 
are rules of hygiene which should be observed, 
and laws of health which must be obeyed. He 
who trusts the Lord for his body should be all 
the more careful about diet, exercise and sleep. 

But here again human precaution and divine 
quickening should blend. There need be no 



96 The Still Small Voice 

separation even in thought between the two. 

The laws of health are the laws of God. We 
s 

may so take the Lord even into our use of nat- 
ural resources of health as that we shall recog- 
nize them as His provision for us. 

Thus in all these phases of our Christian life 
we need the bread of earth and the bread of 
heaven. We must draw nourishment from 
God, but must not ignore the natural basis of 
life and strength. Of these two lessons we 
need especially to learn the former. The grow- 
ing tendency of this age is toward materialism. 
The necessity of eating of the bread of heaven 
needs to be constantly emphasized. How ex- 
pressive is the phrase, "the mouth of God" ! 
It suggests nearness, intimacy, access. From 
the mouth of God came natural life when the 
Lord breathed into man's nostrils. From the 
mouth of God came spiritual life when Jesus 
breathed upon the disciples. If both natural 
and spiritual life come from the mouth of God 
then they are to be sustained and nourished 
from the same source. Let us learn to put our 
lips up to this great fountain of life and con- 
tinually drink in strength for spirit, soul and 
bodv. 



THE QUIET HOUR 



"And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the 
eventide" (Gen. xxiv. 63). 



A QUAINT old divine thus comments on 
this verse : "A beautiful time, a beauti- 
ful place, a beautiful occupation." Re- 
ligious meditation occupies a large place in the 
Scriptures. David exclaimed, "While I was 
musing, the fire burned." Paul's exhortation 
to the Philippians is, "Finally, brethren, what- 
soever things are true, whatsoever things are 
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatso- 
ever things are pure, whatsoever things are of 
good report; if there be any virtue, and if 
there be any praise, think on these things." 
The vital relation between thought and charac- 
ter is disclosed in the inspired saying, "As a 
man thinketh in his heart so is he." 

Life in the Orient is favorable to medita- 
tion. The East is the home of speculation and 
contemplation. In many ways the people of 
those lands live today very much as they did 



98 The Still Small Voice 

a thousand years ago. The counterpart of 
Abraham can be seen in the modern Arab 
sheik. Manners and customs are largely ster- 
eotyped. The stream of commercial and social 
life flows on sluggishly. The spirit of the Or- 
ient is conservative. The warm climate and 
the even tenor of life are conducive to habits 
of reflection and meditation. Religious mysti- 
cism has come out of the East. Life in the Oc- 
cident is the exact opposite of these conditions. 
It is marked by restless haste. Commercial- 
ism is the spirit of the age — the feverish pur- 
suit of wealth. The refinements of modern 
civilization and the exacting demands of bus- 
iness leave little room for habits of quiet reflec- 
tion. In consequence the quiet devotional life 
of believers has suffered. There is a tendency 
to regard even religion as a sort of business. 

But whether the conditions of life are favor- 
able or unfavorable to its exercise, quiet medi- 
tation on spiritual things should be above the 
influence of one's surroundings. The devo- 
tional study of the Scriptures, private prayer, 
and the maintenance of communion with Christ 
through the Spirit should be matters of con- 



Quiet Hour Talks 99 

science. Their observance or non-observance 
is under the control of the will. No one has 
difficulty in finding time for what he wants 
to do; nor is there any failure or irregularity 
in performing one's necessary duties. Medita- 
tion along with other spiritual habits will find 
a place in one's life when its necessity and val- 
ue in maintaining a strong, full spiritual life 
are recognized. When the habit is once formed 
a love of retirement and meditation will spring 
up in the heart; and then the "quiet hour" will 
become one of the fixed features of one's daily 
life. Its non-observance on any given day 
will be felt to be a distinct loss, due to unusual 
pressure upon one's time. When such neg- 
lect of the daily quiet hour does occur because 
of unwonted circumstances, like travel or the 
nursing of the sick, the first free moments 
should be spent in waiting upon God. The 
fact is that the believer should esteem waiting 
upon God in quiet more than his necessary 
food. When this is done, rules and regulations 
for holy living will be unnecessary. The Chris- 
tian will plan for time to be alone with God and 
will highly prize such seasons for communion. 
LofC. 



< a 



100 The Still Small Voice 

The time for daily retirement with God is 
not so important as the season of retirement 
itself. Yet some hours are more favorable than 
others for devotion. The early morning hour 
is highly prized by many. It is a good thing 
for the soul to begin the day with God. The 
eventide is a favorite season with others. It 
is blessed for the soul to close the day with 
God. Some prefer the noon hour and others 
the time of retiring. The time for observing 
the quiet hour will of course readily adjust it- 
self to one's duties and preferences. In the East 
the twilight hour is an especially favorable sea- 
son for quiet and meditation. Late in the after- 
noon a cool breeze tempers the sultry heat of the 
day. Thus it was in "the cool of the day" 
that the voice of the Lord God was heard in the 
Garden of Eden. Jehovah chose the sweet and 
refreshing season of eventide to commune with 
Adam and Eve. So also Isaac chose that sea- 
son to meditate not only upon the goodness of 
God but also upon his approaching union with 
his divinely chosen bride, Rebecca. Even in 
our own land the twilight hour, when the day 
is softly fading into the shadows of the night, 



Quiet Hour Talks 101 

has advantages for quiet meditation (if one can 
spare the time) such as no other season of the 
day possesses. 

Having seen the vital place of spiritual medi- 
tation in Christian life and considered various 
seasons for its exercise, let us now notice some 
of the benefits and blessings which it brings. 

First, Apart from all religious and spiritual 
considerations a daily season of quiet conduces 
to good health. An old adage runs : "After 
breakfast walk a mile; after dinner rest 
awhile." An after dinner nap or rest is often 
prescribed by physicians for persons who are 
run down in strength. A brief period of quiet 
taken at any time during the day aids digestion 
and quiets the nerves. So even from a hygien- 
ic standpoint spiritual meditation has its value. 

Second, Meditation upon the goodness of 
God brings a blessing to the soul. One of the 
charges that the Psalmist brings against Israel 
is that they "soon forgot His works." They did 
not keep fresh in their remembrance by fre- 
quent rehearsal the signal deliverance of Je- 
hovah, as the crossing of the Red Sea and the 
passage of the Jordan. Of course, there are 



102 The Still Small Voice 

annual festivals, as one's birthday and Thanks- 
giving, when a review of the past is especially 
fitting and when as a result one calls upon his 
soul to bless the Lord and forget not all his 
benefits. But it is a good thing every day to 
count our blessings. Especially when the way 
seems dark and the trial of faith with the ac- 
companying tendency to depression of spirit is 
severe, will reflection and meditation upon the 
goodness of God bring lightness of heart and 
the new song of praise. A little refrain runs : 

"The inner side of every cloud 

Is bright and shining. 
I therefore turn my clouds about 
And always wear them inside out 

To show the silver lining." 

No day will be found so dark that upon 
reflection some bright ray will not be seen. 

Two ministers met at a Methodist Confer- 
ence. One said, "Rejoice with me; my horse 
ran away and I was not injured." His friend 
responded, "Praise the Lord ! Now I want you 
to rejoice with me, for my horse didn't run 
away.'' 

God's daily mercies to us are innumerable. 
Many blessings we shall fail to notice and be 



Quiet Hour Talks 103 

thankful for unless we stop to consider all the 
way that God has led even through the few 
hours of a single day. 

Third, It is a good thing to begin the hour of 
meditation by letting the thoughts dwell on a 
passage of Scripture. It may be the chapter 
or verse that the Lord has given us for our 
morning portion ; or it may be a message that 
the Spirit brings to our mind at the time. Pon- 
dering over God's Word puts one in the frame 
of mind for profitable meditation. It quickens 
the memory and opens the well springs of grat- 
itude and joy. It is profitable in meditating to 
follow out some line of truth, or some phase 
of our experience, and nothing is better calcu- 
lated to promote such a train of reflection than 
a portion of Scripture held before our minds by 
the Holy Spirit. 

Fourth, Again, the hour of meditation con- 
duces to the cultivation of what in mediaeval 
times was called the "spirit of recollection.' ' 
This was the carrying of the atmosphere of 
the closet into the busy hours of the day. It 
was not a mood of abstraction which rendered 
one absent minded and made him useless in 



104 The StillJSmalljVoice 

the practical concerns of life. But it was a 
poised, balanced attitude of spirit, which car- 
ried one calm and unruffled through the duties 
of the day. It was a sense of God's nearness 
which steadied the soul and fortified it against 
every emergency. It is what Brother Law- 
rence calls the "Practice of the presence of 
God." It is the believer's privilege to main- 
tain invariably an undisturbed serenity of 
heart and mind. This, however, is not the re- 
sult of will power nor the fruit of a stoical phi- 
losophy. It is due to the keeping power of God 
— "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee." "In quietness and 
confidence shall be your strength." Now, the 
quiet hour feeds this recollected state of heart 
and mind. From its observance the believer 
goes forth like a bird, resting in mid-air on 
outstretched wings, balanced in mind and 
poised in spirit, ready for anything that the 
providence of God may bring. 

Fifth, One great advantage of the evening- 
hour of meditation is that it enables the be- 
liever to commit definitely to the Lord the fol- 
lowing day and to take in advance grace and 



Quiet Honr Talks 105 

strength for its unknown duties and trials. 
Some one has compared this exercise to the 
winding of a watch. Usually every one before 
retiring winds his watch. The mainspring is 
thus coiled anew and power is given it to move 
the mechanism of wheels. All through the 
minutes and the hours of the following day the 
intricate system of wheels performs its func- 
tion through the power given to the main- 
spring the night before. So it is a good thing 
to wind up the mainspring of our life. By 
communion and prayer we store up divine 
strength sufficient to meet all the demands of 
the coming day. We should take the Lord def- 
initely for all our engagements and for all the 
duties that we may reasonably expect that 
the day will bring. We should also take Him 
for all the unknown things that will certainly 
come into our life as we go out into the world 
to take up our burdens and to fulfil our duties. 
Thus by anticipation we can fortify every weak 
place in our life and take grace to meet every 
trial as it comes. It is a blessed thing to take 
the Lord definitely for every minute of the 
time until we shall again meet Him face to face 



106 The Still Small Voice 

at our quiet hour on the following evening. 
Such a definite committal to God of the day 
beforehand enables us to go forth in the morn- 
ing "girded with strength unto the battle." We 
shall be ready and almost eager to meet the 
trials of the day, knowing that He will be there 
before us to make smooth the pathway of our 
feet. And then further it will be a source of 
strength to us just to watch our lives, as it 
were, through the day and see how the provi- 
dences of God meet us at every turn. Very of- 
ten we shall feel that this deliverance or that 
providence is just the very thing we took God 
for the night before; and the consciousness 
will also come of the rich blessing we might 
have missed if we had not prayed it all out and 
believed it all through with God before. When 
one has thus formed the habit of committing 
each day to the Lord before it dawns, he will 
recognize a distinct spiritual loss whenever for 
any reason the exercise is omitted. 

Sixth, Finally, spiritual meditation leads nat- 
urally to communion and communion opens the 
door easily to prayer. In this message we 
have meant by meditation something entirely 



Quiet Hour Talks 107 

distinct from both communion and prayer. 
These two vital spiritual exercises have their 
place, but the emphasis is here put upon med- 
itation. If the hour of meditation be carefully 
guarded, communion and prayer will not be 
neglected. The three inseparably go together. 
Meditation is the seed ; communion is the blos- 
som; and prayer is the fruit. 



ONE WITH CHRIST 

THE union of the believer with Christ is 
one of the most vital and fruitful truths 
of the New Testament; vital, because it 
lies at the foundation of faith; fruitful, because 
it is the channel through which all the gifts and 
graces of the Spirit are bestowed. Four sym- 
bols are employed to set forth this union. First, 
the building of which Christ is the sure Foun- 
dation (Ps. cxviii. 22) Isa. xxviii. 10; Eph. ii. 
20-22; Col. ii. 7; I. Pet. ii. 4, 5). Second, the 
bride, of whom Christ is the divine Husband 
(Rom. vii. 4; II. Cor. xi. 2; Eph. v. 31, 32; 
Rev. xix. 7 ; xxii. 17) . Third, the body of which 
Christ is the risen Head (I. Cor. vi. 15, 19; 
xii. 12; Eph. i. 22, 23; iv. 15; vi. 5, 29, 30). 
Fourth, the branch of which Christ is the true 
Vine (John xv. 1-10; Rom. vi. 5; xi. 24; Col. 
ii. 6, 7). If the reader will consult these pas- 
sages carefully he will find that the truth espe- 
cially emphasized in them all is the unity or 
oneness existing between Christ and the be- 



Quiet Hour Talks 109 

liever. This union as set forth is not natural or 
moral or sacramental in character. On the 
contrary, it is organic (Eph. v. 29, 30) ; vital 
(Gal. ii. 20) ; spiritual (Rom. viii. 9, 10) ; in- 
dissoluble (Matt, xxviii. 20; John x. 28; Rom. 
viii. 35-39; I. Thess. iv. 14-17); and myste- 
rious (Eph. v. 22; Col. i. 2j). 

In this message we desire to present four re- 
spects in which the believer is one with his 
Lord. 

First, One in the participation of His life. 

The union of the soul with Christ is a vital 
one. The believer shares the life of his Lord. 
The sap of the vine flows into the branches. 
So "he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spir- 
it'' (I. Cor. vi. 17). There are two essential 
characteristics of this life. 

1. It is divine. In II. Peter i. 4 it is declared 
that through the promises of God we become 
"partakers of the divine nature." The life 
which the believer shares is the very life of 
Christ Himself. From God's standpoint there 
is ho time element in the union of the believer 
with Christ. We were "chosen in Him before 
the foundation of the world" (Eph. i. 4). We 



HO The Still Small Voice 

were "in Christ Jesus" when He hung on the 
tree; in Him when He rose from the dead; 
and in Him when He took His seat at the right 
hand of the Father. In fact in every relation- 
ship of Christ's life, His people are in the 
thought of God "together with" Him. Hu- 
manly speaking, however, there is a point in 
experience when this union is effected. This is 
the new birth or regeneration, or as it may be 
comprehensively called, conversion. Then it 
is that the germ of the Christ-life is implanted 
in the heart; the time, so to speak, when the 
tiny branch begins to shoot forth from the 
vine. 

2. It is eternal. The life which the child of 
God receives in regeneration is not only divine 
but eternal. Eternal life is not so much a mat- 
ter of duration as of quality; that is, it is a new 
kind of life. Eternal life is the life of Christ 
perpetuated through the ages. Death cannot 
break the union between the believer and his 
Lord. The life of Christ implanted as a germ 
in the new birth will unfold and mature 
throughout eternity. We feed upon Christ 
here ; we shall feed upon Him hereafter. Spir- 



Quiet Hour Talks 111 

itual life is the earnest or "first fruits" of ever- 
lasting life. 

Second, One in the possession of His Spirit. 

Again, the same Spirit that rested upon 
Christ rests upon the believer. By this is not 
meant the temper or disposition of Christ, but 
the Holy Spirit. The "Spirit of Christ" is one 
of the names of the Holy Spirit (I. Peter i. 1 1 ) . 
Two stages in the work of the Holy Spirit in 
the believer may be marked. 

i. The baptism of the Spirit. In a sense, 
of course, it is true that the Spirit is in every 
Christian from the time of his conversion. This 
is the test of discipleship (Rom. viii. 9). We 
are born of the Spirit (John iii. 6). But the life 
of Christ teaches us that there is a definite bap- 
tism of the Holy Spirit, an experience entirely 
distinct from regeneration. Thus, Jesus was 
born of the Spirit in Bethlehem of Judea ; but 
at the age of thirty He was baptized with the 
Spirit at the river Jordan (Luke i. 35 ; Mark i. 
10). So in the life of the believer there should 
come this distinct work. Whether the entire 
consecration of oneself to God and the definite 
reception of the Holy Spirit comes immediately 



112 The Still Small Voice 

after conversion or at a much later period, 
will be largely a matter of apprehension and 
realization of one's privileges in Christ. We 
believe that no lapse of time need intervene. 
See Acts ii. 38; viii. 15; ix. 17; x. 44; xix. 2. 
2. The fulness of the Spirit. The fulness of 
the Spirit marks an advance upon the baptism 
of the Spirit. Like regeneration the baptism 
of the Spirit is a distinct act and a definite 
transaction. There is a time when we take 
Christ as our Saviour; and there is a moment 
when we receive the Holy Spirit as our Indwell- 
er. The fulness of the Spirit, however, while 
distinct from these experiences, differs in char- 
acter. It is not an act, but a process ; it is not 
a transaction, but a habit. Having received 
Christ (act) we grow up into Him in all things 
(process). Having received the Holy Spirit 
(transaction), we keep drinking of His fulness 
(habit) (I. Cor. xii. 13; Eph. v. 18). This is 
the place, we believe, where many true-hearted 
believers who are seeking for the fulness of 
God fail of satisfaction. They have received the 
Holy Spirit; yet their lives are without joy 



Qutet Hour T*lb If 3 

and without fruit. Dear friend, if this is the 
condition of your heart, have you not over- 
looked the fact that the act of receiving the 
Spirit must be followed by the process of living 
and walking in Him ? Are you drinking in the 
fulness of the Spirit? for the command in 
Ephesians v. 18 means, Be ye habitually filled 
with the Spirit. You take ample time for your 
meals. Do you devote enough time to receiv- 
ing your spiritual food ? Perhaps the neglect- 
ed quiet hour explains your unsatisfied spirit- 
ual longings. Get alone each day with God at 
a time when there will be no intrusion; open 
your whole being to the free operation of the 
Holy Spirit ; consciously and voluntarily drink 
in His fulness until every part of your being 
is filled and thrilled with His divine presence 
and power. 

Third, One in the fellowship of His suffer- 
ings. 

Again, union with Christ brings the be- 
liever into fellowship with His sufferings. 
This truth, like a scarlet thread, runs all 
through the New Testament. Paul prayed that 
he "might know Christ and the power of His 



114 The Still Small Voice 

resurrection and the fellowship of His suffer- 
ings becoming conformable unto His death" 
(Phil. iii. 10, R.V.). We read in II. Timo- 
thy ii. 12, "If we suffer we shall also reign 
with Him." There are three relations in which 
we are called to partake of the fellowship of 
Christ's sufferings. 

i. His death. It is only one side of the 
truth to say that Christ died for us. The other 
side is that we died in Him. Christ's death 
was our death. The believer who would enter 
fully into union with Christ must recognize this 
fact and not shrink from its experimental 
meaning. It may be said that our union with 
Christ finds its starting point in His death. This 
is the significance of baptism ; in this beautiful 
yet solemn rite we die in Him by faith to all 
our old life, and rise in Him to all His life di- 
vine (Rom. vi. 2-4; Col. ii. 12). This was 
the foundation of Paul's personal religious ex- 
perience (Gal. ii. 20). In the death of Christ 
we put off the old man and put on the new 
man. The New Testament epistles constantly 
recognize this truth as the foundation of all 



Quiet Hour Talks 115 

appeals to a life of holiness and service (Col. 
iii. n). 

2. His reproach. It should never be forgot- 
ten that from the standpoint of the world the 
cross of Christ is a reproach, and that he who 
exalts it in his life and teaching will be subject 
to persecutions. Jesus said to His disciples, 
"If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath 
hated Me before it hated you. * * * Remember 
the word that I said unto you, a servant is not 
greater than his Lord. - If they persecuted Me 
they will also persecute you" (John xv. 18,20). 
Paul reminds Timothy that "all that will live 
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecu- 
tion" (II. Tim. iii. 12). A woe rests upon the 
believer when all men shall speak well of him 
(Luke vi. 26) ; whereas a blessing rests upon 
him who is falsely persecuted for righteous- 
ness' sake (Matt. v. 11). The believer who 
bears Christ's reproach lives well pleasing unto 
God (I. Pet. ii. 20). 

3. His self-sacrificing ministry. In the brief- 
est and yet most comprehensive statement of 
Christ's life in the New Testament we read 
that He "went about doing good" (Acts x. 38). 



116 The Still Small Voice 

Paul tells us that Christ pleased not Himself 
(Rom. xv. 3). Christ lived for others and fin- 
allv died for them. In this unselfish and self- 
sacrificing ministry of the Lord the believer is 
permitted to share. Paul was called to fill up 
that which was lacking of the afflictions of 
Christ for the sake of the Church (Col. i. 24). 
There is a sense in which the believer has a 
vicarious ministry. He is called to a life of self- 
denial and self-denying service for others 
(John xii. 24-26; xiii. 14-16; I. Pet. ii. 21, 22). 
Many of our trials and afflictions are not mere- 
ly for our own discipline but to fit us to min- 
ister comfort and blessing to others (II. Cor. 

i.3-8). 

Fourth, One in the inheritance of His glory. 

Finally, the oneness of the believer with 
Christ finds its consummation in the inherit- 
ance of His glory. The familiar motto, "No 
cross, no crown/' is true to the teaching of the 
New Testament; and just as surely as we bear 
the cross we shall wear the crown (II. Tim. 
ii. 12). It is true that in the purpose of God 
the believer has been exalted with Christ and 
made to sit with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 



Quiet Hour Talks 117 

ii. 6). Our conversation or citizenship is in 
heaven. Yet in experience our life and walk 
are on the earth ; and the realization of our in- 
heritance in Christ's glory is still future. We 
may briefly mention two aspects in which we 
shall be inheritors of Christ's glory. 

i. His reign. When Christ returns, His peo- 
ple are to reign with Him upon the earth (Rev. 
xx. 4). Now the Church is in a position of 
humiliation; then it will be in a place of exal- 
tation. It is a sad mistake for the Church to be 
seeking for a kingdom while the King is ab- 
sent; to be seeking for worldly position and hon- 
or while her Lord and Master is despised and 
rejected of men. This is the time of service, not 
of coronation; and the loyal believer will be 
satisfied to wait till the coming age for the re- 
wards of faithfulness to Christ (I. Cor. iii. 11- 

15)- 
2. His person. God has called each one of 

His children to be conformed to the image of 

Christ (Rom. viii. 29). Some features of 

Christ's likeness we take on here through the 

gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit ; but His full 

image we shall not wear till the coming age. 



»I8 The Still Small Voice 

David exclaimed, "I shall be satisfied when I 
awake with Thy likeness. " The Apostle John 
said, "Beloved, now are we the children of God 
and it is not yet made manifest what we shall 
be. We know that if He shall be manifested 
we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him 
even as He is" (I. John iii. 2, 3). 

"One in the rapturous hour, 

When He shall come for His own ; 
Raised by His glorious power, 

I shall sit down on His throne. 
All that He has shall be mine, 

All that He is I shall be ; 
Robed in His glory divine, 

I shall be even as He." 



SECURITY AND SERENITY 

"But whoso hearkeneth unto Me shall dwell se- 
curely and shall be quiet without fear of evil" (Prov. 
t 33). 

IN all our Bibles there are underscored verses 
that have been given to us as seeds of 
promise or made real in times of need. 
This verse is marked in my Bible. At a crisis 
in my life it came with help for the present and 
hope for the future. 

A beautiful thing about this verse is that it 
is for every one. The word "whoso" or "who- 
soever" breathes the spirit of the Gospel. It is 
said that a man named John Smith once de- 
clared that he was glad the Bible did not say 
that John Smith might take the water of life 
freely ; for as there might be other John 
Smiths in the world he could not be sure which 
John Smith was meant. But when the Bible 
said, "Whosoever will let him take the water of 
life freely," he was confident that he himself 
was included in the universal invitation. Be- 
loved, "whosoever" just means you. Leave a 



120 The Still Small Voice 

blank where the word occurs and write your 
own name down; then you will get the exact 
force of the expression. 

By reading over the chapter you will notice 
that it is wisdom that utters her voice in this 
verse. What are we to understand by wisdom 
here and elsewhere in the Book of Proverbs? 
Some scholars think that it means prudence, 
good judgment, or wisdom personified; but in 
the New Testament Christ is called the "wisdom 
of God." Consequently, if we substitute the word 
Christ for wisdom we shall get the inspired 
meaning. "Whoso hearkeneth unto Me" then, 
may be rendered, "Whoso hearkeneth unto 
Christ ;" or, "Whoso hearkeneth unto the Holy 
Spirit," for it is Christ speaking by the Spirit. 

This verse contains a most beautiful and 
comforting promise, to which is attached a 
simple but essential condition. 

The promise is twofold: security from the 
presence of evil and serenity without fear of 
evil. In the first place, the promise insures 
protection from danger, safety from harm and 
security from evil. The word "dwell" may be 
rendered "lie down" or "recline." The protection 



Quiet Hour Talks 121 

promised is not confinement within the strong 
walls of a frowning castle, but rather the safe 
guarding of personal watchfulness. "I, Je- 
hovah, am its Keeper, I will water it every mo- 
ment ; lest any hurt it I will keep it night and 
day." God Himself will keep us from all 
harm. He is our sufficient security from all 
evil. If we hearken to Him His invisible but 
omnipotent presence will shield us from dan- 
gers seen and unseen. With David we shall be 
able to say, "In peace will I both lay me down 
and sleep, for Thou, Jehovah, alone makest 
me dwell in safety" (Ps. iv. 8). 

In the next place, the promise includes seren- 
ity of heart and mind. Serenity is not the same 
as security. The one means protection from 
real danger. The other means deliverance from 
the dread of evil. It is possible for one to be 
safe within a strong fortress and yet live in 
mortal terror of imaginary foes. The knowl- 
edge that no harm can touch one does not al- 
ways quiet the heart and reassure the mind. On 
the other hand it is possible to stand in the 
presence of danger without the fluttering of the 
heart or the quickening of the pulse. And the 



122 The Still Small Voice 

Lord delivers us not only from "fightings with- 
out but from fears within." 

''Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee" (Isa. xxvi. 3). "And 
the peace of God which passeth all understand- 
ing shall guard your hearts and your thoughts 
in Christ Jesus" (Phil. iv. 7). 

A timid old lady who was crossing the ocean 
for the first time became greatly agitated in a 
violent storm. "Is there any fear?" she asked 
the captain. "No, my good woman," he re- 
plied, "there is no fear, but a great deal of dan- 
ger." This reply reassured her, and she went 
to her stateroom and slept in peace. So Jesus 
in the presence of great danger keeps the soul 
from alarm. "There shall no evil befall thee." 
"What time I am afraid I will trust in the 
Lord." "I will trust and not be afraid." 

Now let us look at the simple but essential 
condition upon which rests this glorious prom- 
ise of security from evil and serenity from 
alarm. "Whoso hearkeneth unto Me." This 
condition is hearkening unto the Lord. What 
is it to hearken? Of course, hearkening means 
obedience. Whenever God speaks we must 



Quiet Hour Talks 123 

mind; and whatever He commands, we must 
implicitly obey. But hearkening implies more 
than obedience. Before one can obey God's 
will he must know what His will is. Thus 
hearkening also means to attend diligently to 
what God says ; to listen intently when He 
speaks ; and to inquire persistently what His 
will for us is. "Wherefore be not unwise, but 
understanding what the will of the Lord is." 

But before one can know God's will he must 
be quiet before Him. And so hearkening fur- 
ther includes the act and practice of waiting on 
the Lord. When the hunting dog strikes the 
trail, he pricks up his ear and listens. The 
mother gets the little child to listen by saying, 
"Hark!" in hushed accents. So if we would 
know the will of God and hear His voice when 
He speaks, we must get quiet at His feet. We 
must cease from ourselves and our own ways. 
The clamorings of our own hearts must be 
stilled. The wandering and opposing thoughts 
of our minds must be quieted. We must even 
get ourselves into an attitude of physical and 
mental repose before Him. Silence must reign 



124 The Still Small Voice 

throughout our soul; stillness must pervade 
our entire being. 

Beloved, this simple condition of hearkening, 
while easy to talk about and attractive in 
prospect, is most difficult of attainment. In 
fact, we cannot hearken to God ourselves ; the 
more w T e try the less we shall succeed. The 
very attempt to get still before God is apt to 
stir our hearts with conflicting emotions and 
excite our minds by distracting thoughts. But 
we do not have to hearken by our own efforts. 
In this respect the Holy Spirit will help our in- 
firmities. All God's commandments are enable- 
ments. The Holy Spirit Himself will be in us 
the ability to be quiet, the power to know His 
voice and the strength to do His will. 

This little verse will bring measureless com- 
fort and limitless strength, if its secret is once 
learned. When God once speaks we can trust 
His word, "For God is not a man that He 
should lie, nor the son of man that He should 
repent. Hath He spoken and shall He not do 
it, or hath He promised and shall He not make 
it good?" It matters not whether our foes com- 
pass us on every side ; if we hearken to God He 



Quiet Hour Talks 125 

will deliver us. It matters not whether our 
friends predict the approach of evil; if we 
hearken to God He will carry us through ev- 
ery danger. It matters not whether our own 
hearts faint and falter and our minds are filled 
with nameless dread; if we hearken to God, 
He will be better to us than all our fears. If 
we take. Christ to be our Counsellor He will 
follow it up by being our mighty God. 



THE TWO LAWS 

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
made me free from the law of sin and of death" 
(Rom. viii. 2, R.V.). 

A GOOD artist makes effective use of con- 
trasts. In all the paintings of a fa- 
mous artist in the galleries of the Louvre 
in Paris there is some hideous object in the 
foreground to enhance the beauty of the scene. 
Thus in one picture a slimy serpent is seen 
coiled at the feet of a beautiful child. The 
Holy Spirit is a divine Artist. The pictures 
He paints always have an appropriate setting. 
Thus, at the close of the seventh chapter of 
Romans, over against the shout of victory, "I 
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," is 
the wail of despair, "Wretched man that I am, 
who shall deliver me out of the body of this 
death ?" One moment we hear the clanking of 
the chain of the devil's captive; the next mo- 
ment we hear the paean of praise of the Lord's 
freeman. 

In Romans viii. 2, we find the cause of the 



Quiet Hour Talks 127 

Apostle's exultant shout. It is the key to his 
deliverance from the slavery of sin. This verse 
reveals two laws : the law of sin and death, 
and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus. Paul's release from the law of sin and 
death was effected by the operation of the law 
of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. 

Let us try to get a clear view of these two 
laws and their working. On the one hand there 
was a force dragging the apostle downward. 
It was the law, whose working wrought sin in 
his members and would bring spiritual death as 
its fruit. Its movement was constant, inflexi- 
ble and inexorable. On the other hand there 
was a power lifting the apostle upward. It 
was the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, 
whose working wrought out victory over sin, 
and brought life instead of death. Its move- 
ment was also constant, inflexible and inexor- 
able. These two opposing laws were of un- 
equal strength and belonged to different 
spheres of action. The law of the Spirit of life 
was higher and stronger ; it met and overcame 
the lower law of sin and death, and thus 
brought deliverance and victory to the apostle. 



128 The Still Small Voice 

One or two illustrations will help us to under- 
stand the operation of these two laws. The 
corrupting and germinating of the seed, and 
the deterioration and invigoration of the body 
are analogies of the working of higher laws in 
the spiritual world. 

A seed is planted in the ground. At once it 
is seized by forces which carry it down to 
death. It is disintegrated; it decays and be- 
comes a mass of corruption ; and at last it dies. 
Apparently, the little seed is entirely destroyed. 
But enshrined within it is a germ. It has a 
strange power to resist decay and death. It is 
the principle of vegetable life. Soon up from 
that mass of corruption there springs a tiny 
sprout ; "first the blade, then the ear, then the 
full corn in the ear." It may be said that the 
law of vegetable life in the seed has freed it 
from the law of death. 

Again, a human being is born into the world. 
At once the body comes under the law of decay 
and death. There are strange forces both in- 
side and out that tend to weaken and destroy 
it. In the food that nourishes, and in the air 
that sustains life there are germs of disease. 



Quiet Hour Talks 129 

But there is a power within that resists these 
attacks. It is the mysterious principle of life. 
Natural vitality helps us to ward off disease. 
Of course in the end the physical frame suc- 
cumbs to the weakness or sickness ; but for 
many years a frail constitution often battles 
successfully against inherited tendencies to dis- 
ease. Thus it may be said that the law of phy- 
sical life frees us from the law of disease. 

This verse yields the secret of deliverance 
from two dominionships, viz. : sin and disease. 

First, Victory over the dominion of sin. 

Sin is a terrible reality. Every soul in its as- 
pirations for a nobler life is conscious of forces 
dragging it down to lower levels. So real and 
constant is the working of this power that the 
Apostle Paul speaks of it as a law. On every 
side are enticements to evil, while pitfalls beset 
the pathway. But the worst form of the foe is 
not in our environment; it is in ourselves. 
Within the struggle for victory is fiercest. The 
law of sin works in our members. There is an 
inclination to evil in our own hearts. There 
is a perverseness in our natures. Evil solici- 
tations from without find a ready response from 



130 The Still Small Voice 

within. Moreover, the knowledge of the right 
supplies no motive power to do the right. In- 
deed, the revelation of God's high standard of 
character and conduct only aggravates the 
struggle and makes our failure to attain this 
standard the more certain. The seventh chap- 
ter of Romans is a picture of a saved man 
struggling in his own strength against this law 
of sin which works both within and without. 
What is the divine secret of deliverance ? It 
is not resolution, nor reformation, nor any oth- 
er form of moral or legal effort. Victory is 
won through the operation of the law of the 
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Deliverance 
comes by giving up the struggle ourselves and 
letting the Holy Spirit release us from the un- 
equal conflict. The life of God will flood the 
soul and lift it above the dominion of sin. How- 
ever, the law of sin is not destroyed; but its 
working is suspended and rendered of none ef- 
fect by the higher law of the Spirit of life. A 
simple illustration will make this clear. Grav- 
itation is a force that works throughout the un- 
iverse. Objects upon the surface of the earth 
it attracts toward the center. For example, a 



Quiet Hour Talks 131 

book held in my hand is drawn downward by 
a force proportionate to its weight. But in my 
hand the book seems no longer to be drawn 
downward. It rests in the air, or moves up- 
ward in defiance of gravitation. Is it, however, 
no longer acted upon by this law ? Certainly ; 
but the law of life manifested in the movement 
of my arm has freed the book from the control 
of the law of gravitation. While in my hand 
and controlled by its movements the book is 
freed from this law. The law of life has deliv- 
ered it from the law of force. Now, in just 
the same way is the soul freed from the law 
of sin by the law of the Spirit of life. The law 
of sin does not cease to work. Its agency is 
still as powerful as before. Sin is not dead, 
but the believer has become dead to sin (Rom. 
vi. 1 1 ) . Thus, by the operation of the law of 
the Spirit of life the believer is freed from the 
law of sin. This is God's way of holiness. This 
is the divine secret of sanctification. If it is 
a theory, it is a theory that works. It is a prac- 
tical power unto godliness to all who believe. 

Second, Victory over the dominion of dis- 
ease. 



132 The Still Small Voice 

In the illustration used above, it was shown 
how from birth the physical frame is played 
upon by insidious influences that make for its 
weakening and destruction. This was seen to 
be the working of the law of death. When 
the body is well and strong it may have power 
to ward off these attacks. But the physical 
body of the average person is none too vigor- 
ous ; many have constitutional sources of weak- 
ness ; and even the most powerful frames often 
fall victims to disease. Thus an unequal bat- 
tle for health is constantly waged. In many 
instances the struggle is hard and lasts as long 
as life itself. The skill of physicians can ac- 
complish much, but at best the aid of human 
resources is limited ; and in many cases natural 
vitality and medical science are unavailing. 

Now, what is the secret of deliverance from 
this law of disease? It is the operation of the 
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. God 
has not delivered our souls from the dominion 
of sin and left our bodies under the power of 
disease, which is one of its fruits. For those 
who walk in His holy will He has made provi- 
sion for deliverance from physical bondage. 



Quiet Hour Talks 133 

Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. 
His office work is to quicken our mortal body 
(Romans viii. n). But here, again, the law 
of disease, so-called, is not destroyed. Our 
bodies are not removed from their natural en- 
vironment. The food we eat and the air we 
breathe are still filled with deadly germs and 
noxious influences. Moreover, constitutional 
weaknesses are not always taken away. Even 
the sources of disease may be allowed to re- 
main. But just as the book was freed from 
the force of gravitation by the power of life in 
the hand, so our bodies come under the influ- 
ence of a higher law which lifts them above 
the power of weakness and disease. Thus the 
law of death that works in our members is sus- 
pended and made of none effect. Just as light 
banishes darkness, so the inflow of the divine 
life into the soul frees it from the power of sin ; 
while the overflow of this divine life into the 
body counteracts and delivers it from the down- 
ward pressure of weakness and disease. 

There are two all-important facts in connec- 
tion with this glorious truth which need to be 
noticed. 



134 The Still Small Voice 

The first is the sphere of the operation of 
this law of the Spirit of life. It is "in Christ 
Jesus." It is a well known fact that laws are 
restricted in their application, and that to come 
under the influence of a given law one must be 
in the sphere in which the law works. Thus the 
laws of England are different from the laws of 
the United States. An Englishman in England 
is not subject to the laws of this country, and 
vice versa. But if an Englishman should come 
to the United States, and become a citizen, then 
he would be subject to the laws of this coun- 
try. Now it is "in Christ Jesus" that this law 
of liberty works ; and to come under its opera- 
tion we must be "in Christ Jesus." The way 
to get into Christ Jesus is to get out of our- 
selves, and the way to get out of ourselves is to 
die out. We must identify ourselves by faith 
with His death and resurrection (Rom. vi. 
i-ii). 

The second truth is the two aspects in which 
the believer is freed from the law of sin and 
death. One is the doctrinal aspect, and the 
other is the experimental aspect. These two 
need to be carefully distinguished. Doc- 



Quiet Hour Talks 135 

trinally, or historically, so to speak, the 
believer was freed from the law of sin 
and disease by the work of Christ on the 
cross. When He died our salvation was fin- 
ished. By His death unto sin Christ purchased 
the deliverance of His people from its power. 
But the experimental aspect is quite another 
matter. By this is meant the believer's expe- 
rience of deliverance. This may take place at 
any time that he apprehends, and appropriates 
by faith, his purchased freedom. Whenever he 
does this the Holy Spirit makes real in Him 
what Christ has made real for Him. May the 
Lord open the eyes of many sin-sick and dis- 
ease-sick Christians to see and claim their in- 
heritance in Christ. 

Several points already touched upon inci- 
dentally require emphasis: 

First, Both these forces are laws. 

If the downward power of sin was a law 
working inflexibly and inexorably, while the 
upward power of life was merely an influence 
without regularity and constancy of opera- 
tion, our deliverance would not be fully as- 
sured. But the Spirit of life is also a law ; not 



136 The Still Small Voice 

an abstract principle, but a divine person. For, 
the Holy Spirit Himself is the law of life. He 
meets and overcomes the downward pressure 
of sin and disease with a movement more 
inflexible, irresistible and irrevocable than law 
itself. 

Second, These two laws are of unequal 
strength. If they were of equal or nearly 
equal force, there would not be rest and vic- 
tory. On the contrary there would be constant 
struggle and incessant conflict. But the Holy 
Spirit is so much higher and mightier than 
the power of sin and the strength of disease 
that He vanquishes them. Indeed sin and dis- 
ease are swallowed up by holiness and health. 

Third, This victory over sin and sickness is 
not secured by a single act, but by a continuous 
process. The law of the Spirit of life contin- 
ually works in our hearts and bodies. As we 
abide in Christ Jesus the Holy Spirit keeps us 
in the place of victory. If the pressure of 
temptation is heavy, His grace is there to meet 
and overcome it. If the law of sin is threaten- 
ing to overpower us, the Spirit of Holiness is 
there to give victory and peace. There need be 



Quiet Hour Talks 137 

no sense of effort or struggle in our own 
strength. We have simply to recognize our 
position in Christ Jesus, and count by faith 
on the working of the law of life within Him. 
The Lord will thus make faith's reckonings 
glorious realities. In the same way by the 
Spirit of life our physical strength is renewed 
day by day. For our weariness He gives us 
His rest ; for our weakness He substitutes His 
strength; for our exhaustion He imparts His 
vigor. Here again there need be no sense of 
effort or struggle in our own strength. We 
have simply to recognize that "we are members 
of His body, of His flesh and of His bones," 
and that "in Him we live and move and have 
our being/' As we thus claim by faith our 
redemption rights, the Spirit of God will 
breathe upon our mortal frames, quickening 
them into newness of life. 

This is a glorious secret. May it bring vic- 
tory to many struggling hearts and fainting 
bodies. 



UNION AND COMMUNION 

"Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit 
saith the Lord of Hosts" (Zech. iv. 6). 

IN the fourth chapter of Zechariah is record- 
ed one of the most beautiful prophetic vi- 
sions in the Old Testament. Zechariah was 
a prophet of the restoration. His messages 
strengthened the hands of Joshua and Zerub- 
babel in the work of rebuilding the temple. 
While his prophecies have an immediate appli- 
cation to his own times, yet they find their 
largest fulfilment in Christ, and through Him 
in the Church and in the individual believer. 
Let us first look at the vision and then at its 
spiritual significance. 

First, The vision. 

As an aid in understanding the vision let the 
reader imagine himself in a darkened room, 
prepared, so to speak, for a stereopticon exhibi- 
tion. Let him further imagine that each detail 
of the vision as it is mentioned is thrown upon 
the screen in succession. The first thing that 



Quiet Hour Talks 139 

Zechariah saw was a golden candlestick or can- 
delabrum, such as was in the tabernacle and 
later in the temple. It had seven branches 
whose lights were fed from a bowl at the top. 
There was nothing unusual in this; and the 
sight must have been a familiar one to Zecha- 
riah. Next, he saw two olive trees growing, 
one on the right and the other on the left of 
the candlestick. In this there was nothing 
strange, except perhaps the proximity of the 
trees to the candlestick. For a time it would 
seem that Zechariah saw nothing else; but af- 
ter his talk with the heavenly messenger his at- 
tention was arrested by a most singular thing. 
Two olive branches, one from each tree, bent 
toward the candlestick. From the reservoir at 
the top two golden pipes extended, which met 
the branches, perhaps midway. This was all 
he saw; but the object of the arrangement was 
at once apparent. It was this : as the olive 
trees ripened their fruit the oil flowed down 
through the branches and the pipes into the re- 
servoir of the candlestick. Thus, the sevenfold 
light being continually fed was kept perpetual- 
ly burning. Now let us group these details 



140 The Still Small Voice 

into a vivid picture. There was the glistening 
candlestick with its seven-branched light bright- 
ly burning. On either side was an olive tree, 
green and fresh in its beauty and fertility. The 
oil, though unseen, flowed steadily and contin- 
ually into the reservoir. As the prophet gazed 
upon the scene, he saw no priest to tend the 
lights. He saw no shears, snuffers or oil can. 
The trees perpetually ripened their fruit; the 
oil constantly flowed; the light incessantly 
burned. It was a silent, beautiful scene. The 
hand of man was absent. It was God's own 
provision for giving perpetual light. 

Second, The meaning of the vision. 

As Zechariah beheld the vision, the message 
came to him, "Not by might nor by power, but 
by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." With 
the application of the vision to the prophet's 
own times our purpose does not concern itself. 
It may be stated, however, that the vision was 
given undoubtedly to encourage Joshua and 
Zerubbabel in their difficult work of rebuilding 
the temple. In this work they were hindered 
in many ways. It seems probable that the can- 
dlestick represented the temple on the familiar 



Quiet Hour Talks 14 1 

principle that a part may stand for the whole. 
It would be natural, then, that the two olive 
trees should stand for Joshua and Zerubbabel 
as "the two anointed ones that stand by the 
Lord of the whole earth." But of course 
back of them stood Jehovah Himself to 
strengthen their hands and to bring to comple- 
tion the noble work which they had under- 
taken. 

It is the spiritual application of the vision 
which here concerns us. Bible scholars are not 
agreed in their application of all the details, but 
the spiritual significance of its main features 
seems to be clear enough. Let us first try to 
understand what the vision means as a whole 
and then notice some of the spiritual lessons 
suggested by its several parts. 

It seems to be clear that the candlestick rep- 
resents the Church and also the believer, for 
whatever is true of the Church as the body of 
Christ is true also of believers as members of 
that body. It also seems clear that the two 
olive trees represent the Lord, perhaps in His 
twofold office of Priest and King. It is the 
opinion of some Bible scholars that the two 



142 The Still Small Voice 

olive trees symbolize Christ and the Holy Spir- 
it. But it is sufficiently accurate for the spir- 
itual significance to see that while the candle- 
stick stands for the believer the two olive trees 
represent the Lord. It is clear then that the 
spiritual teaching of the vision is two- fold : un- 
ion and communion. The connecting branches 
between the trees and the reservoir set forth 
the believer's union with Christ. The silent- 
ly flowing oil and the steadily burning light 
beautifully symbolize the communion of the be- 
liever with Christ through the Holy Spirit. 

Now let us gather together some suggestive 
spiritual lessons from the details of the vision. 

First, The position of the candlestick in the 
midst of the two olive trees sets forth as clearlv 
as a symbol can the abiding of the believer in 
Christ. Even in the Old Testament this truth 
was foreshadowed. Thus, the opening verse of 
the ninety-first Psalm declares that "He that 
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." 
This is the deep spiritual teaching of the alle- 
gory of the vine and the branches. Paul told 
the Athenians that "in Him we live and move 



Quiet Hour Talks 143 

and have our being." A line of a modern hymn 
runs : "God is our home, forever," a para- 
phrase of the opening statement of the nine- 
tieth Psalm, "Lord, Thou hast been our dwell- 
ing place in all generations." Surely, this vi- 
sion most beautifully symbolizes the perma- 
nence and security of that life of the believer 
which is "hid with Christ in God." 

Second, The union of the believer with 
Christ is a living union. This is set forth in the 
connecting branches and pipes. Organically 
and vitally we are one with Christ. "He that is 
joined to the Lord is one Spirit" — this express- 
es our spiritual oneness with Him. "We have 
the mind of Christ." "Let this mind be in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus" — these verses 
express our mental or intellectual oneness with 
Christ. "The Lord is for the body, and the body 
for the Lord." "We are members of His body, 
of His flesh and of His bones" — these verses 
express our physical oneness with Christ. Our 
Lord is the Source of our life and as we are 
vitally one with Him through the Spirit we 
may draw from Him, as our risen Head, the 
supply of every need for spirit, soul and body. 



144 The Still Small Voice 

Third, That which vitally connects us with 
Christ is the Holy Spirit who indwells us. 
Christ is in heaven and we are upon earth. 
But the Holy Spirit not only makes Him real 
to our consciousness, but puts us in touch with 
Him. This truth is set forth by the oil which 
is always a symbol of the Holy Spirit. More- 
over, this spiritual oneness is disclosed in the 
fact that the fruit of the tree is the fuel of the 
lamp. 

Fourth, Because our union with Christ is 
permanent, our communion may be constant. 
There was no interruption in the flow of the oil 
from the trees to the reservoir. The flame was 
not intermittent but constant. The commun- 
ion of believers in Christ is often interrupted 
and broken ; and the consciousness of their fel- 
lowship is intermittent. This need not and 
should not be so. Recognition of the perma- 
nence of our union with Christ and of the 
privilege of unbroken fellowship will help to 
maintain an attitude and a habit of conscious 
and blessed communion. 

Fifth, The candlestick burned brightly, not 
through any efforts of its own, but simply by 



Quiet Hour Talks 145 

receiving the oil from the olive trees. Its light 
was fed from a source outside of itself. This is 
true of us. Christ is our Life. Jesus said, 
"Without Me ye can do nothing." Self effort 
interferes with God's working. 

Sixth, While the source was inexhaustible 
yet the seven branches received just enough 
oil to keep the light burning. Toq great a sup- 
ply would have been as bad as too little. So 
the Lord regulates the supply of His grace to 
our need. The promise is, "As thy day so 
shall thy strength be." Christ taught us to 
pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." 

Seventh, By the mechanism of the vision the 
supply of oil was kept fresh and new. There 
was nothing stale or old about it all. Thus our 
spiritual manna falls on the morning dew so 
that we may gather it fresh and new for our 
strength and nourishment. 



THE THREE R'S 

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead 
indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord" (Rom. vi. n). 

"Rest in the Lord" (Psalm xxxvii. 7). 

"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again, I say, 
rejoice" (Phil. iv. 4). 

THERE is such a thing as an open secret. 
Paul tells us one in Philippians. He 
says, "Everywhere and in all things I 
have learned the secret (R.V.), both to be full 
and to be hungry, both to abound and to suf- 
fer need. I can do all things through Christ 
which strengtheneth me" (Phil. iv. 12, 13). 
The secret that Paul reveals to us is that be- 
cause Christ dwells within him, he is content 
under all conditions ; in abasement and in ex- 
altation ; in fulness and in hunger ; in satisfac- 
tion and in need. 

There is an open secret which I have learned 
and which I desire to pass on to others that 
they too may enjoy the blessings which its pos- 
session brings. It is the secret of the three 



Quiet Hour Talks 147 

R's : not the three R's of secular education, 
"reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic" ; but the three 
R's of spiritual education — reckon, rest and re- 
joice. Like the three legs of a stool, these three 
things will give firm support for a satisfactory 
Christian experience. If one be lacking the 
spiritual life will be unsteady. 

First, Reckon. 

After having unfolded in the sixth chapter of 
Romans under the symbol of baptism the be- 
liever's death and resurrection with Christ, 
Paul gives in the eleventh verse the secret of 
the practical realization of this glorious truth. 
This is the principle of reckoning. "Likewise 
reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto 
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ 
our Lord." In the Greek the same word is 
used in James i. 2 : "My brethren, count it all 
joy when ye fall into divers temptations." 
"Reckon" or "count," in the New Testament, is 
a word that expresses not a state of feeling, but 
an attitude of faith. In its signification and us- 
age there is absolutely no idea of emotion; it 
is a mathematical term, denoting a cold calcu- 
lating operation of the reasoning faculty. It 



148 The Still Small Voice 

expresses an estimate based on facts and not a 
conclusion founded on feeling. When a mer- 
chant balances his books, he reckons upon the 
result ; for figures cannot lie. 

The regulating principle of Christian life fs 
an attitude and habit of reckoning. For exam- 
ple, take one instance of the use of the word 
"reckon" or "count." James says, "Count it all 
joy when ye fall into divers temptations." Let 
us see justwhat this means. Take a sheet of pa- 
per and instead of counting up your blessings 
write down all your trials. Make a complete 
list of all your "fightings without and fears 
within." Don't leave anything out — doubts, 
temptations, misunderstanding, and misrepre- 
sentations, persecutions (if you can scare up 
any), the seductions of the world, the flesh 
and the devil, injuries real or fancied, sick- 
ness, discouragement, separations, bereave- 
ments — put them all down. Now draw a line 
and add up the column. What a dark picture 
your eye runs over, doesn't it ? Well, what to- 
tal do you get? "All Joy." No, no; not all 
sorrow, or all discouragement or all failure; 
but all joy. That is God's total. He says, 



Quiet Hour Talks 149 

"Count it all joy." That is, set it down to your 
account as all joy. Never mind the feeling 
nor the appearances of things. Thus, reckon- 
ing or counting is simply saying "Amen" to 
what God says is true. Now, if it is all joy 
what then is to be done? Why, of course be- 
gin to sing and praise the Lord and He will 
soon make "faith's reckonings glorious reali- 
ties." 

Reckoning is the pole star of our walk with 
God. When the sky is overcast and the sun 
does not shine by day nor the stars by night, 
the mariner with chart and compass plots the 
course of his ship by dead reckoning. Then 
when the sky clears he verifies his dead reckon- 
ing by his instruments. So when the spiritual 
sky is overcast and feeling seems to die in the 
heart, the believer must steadily pursue his 
heavenly course by the dead reckoning of faith. 
Then when the sunlight of God once more 
bursts upon the soul he will find that the rud- 
der of faith has kept his bark on the right 
course. Thus, his feelings will confirm his 
faith and teach him more and more not to 



150 The Still Small Voice 

sail by fluctuating emotions but by the inflexi- 
ble principle of faith. 

Second, Rest. 

There is a divine order in these three words. 
After reckoning comes rest. Rest is just an- 
other name for trust. Reckoning and resting 
supplement each other. If one is resting in the 
Lord he may be sure that he is reckoning on 
His word; and if one is reckoning on the di- 
vine word, he may be sure that he is resting 
in God. There is no rest without reckoning, 
and there is no reckoning without resting; for 
reckoning is faith ; and rest is trust ; and faith 
and trust always go together. The presence of 
the one may be tested by the presence of the 
other. 

While inseparable, yet reckoning and resting 
are not identical. It is not uncommon, how- 
ever, for a Christian to fancy that he is trusting 
the Lord when the evidence of faith is con- 
spicuously absent from his life. Indeed, it is 
one of the delusions of the adversary to make 
one think that he is believing God while all the 
time the lack of the spirit of trust is manifest 
in his life. On the other hand, one may easily 



Quiet Hour Talks 151 

persuade himself that he is trusting God when 
a spirit of doubt really controls his actions. 
For this reason we emphasize rest as well as 
reckoning as the secret of a victorious Chris- 
tian life. The word "rest" in the Scriptures may 
often be rendered "wait upon," or "be silent 
unto/' God. It is a spirit of quiet confidence and 
undisturbed serenity of heart and mind. Perhaps 
an illustration will bring out its meaning into 
clearness. You have an estate to be settled and 
you seek the services of a competent lawyer. 
Two steps are necessary for you to take before 
he can successfully look after your interests. 
First, you must commit your case entirely into 
his hands. Secondly, you must trust him im- 
plicitly, content to leave everything to his care. 
The first step we may call reckoning ; you show 
your faith in the lawyer by engaging his ser- 
vices. The second step we may call rest ; you 
manifest your confidence in your legal adviser 
by trusting him. To extend the illustration, 
suppose now you should manifest anxiety af- 
ter having committed your interests to the law- 
yer. You begin to be anxious about the matter 
and find yourself worrying whether after all 



152 The Still Small Voice 

he is going to do the right thing by you. If 
you expressed your fears to the lawyer himself 
he would certainly be justified in giving up the 
case. Business cannot be transacted without 
mutual confidence. So when you commit any- 
thing to the Lord you must not only believe 
that he undertakes the matter in hand but 
you must trust Him ; you must rest as well as 
reckon. Worry and trust mutually destroy 
each other; uneasiness of heart or mind is in- 
compatible with rest. Guard well then against 
any spirit of disquiet or restlessness. Doubt 
is the hammer that drives the entering wedge 
of worry. With the loss of trust faith will be 
destroyed. 

Third, Rejoice. 

Joy is the crowning word of this series. Re- 
joicing is the fruit of reckoning and resting. 
If we have reckoned on God's faithfulness and 
are resting in His word surely we shall re- 
joice in the Lord. "Rejoice in the Lord 
alway: and again, I say rejoice." Joy is the 
barometer of the believer's experience. Low 
pressure indicates a barren and wintry state of 
the heart ; while high pressure indicates tropic- 



Quiet Hour Talks 153 

al luxuriance of "the love life of the Lord." 
Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize 
the necessity of joy. 'The joy of the Lord is 
your strength." "These things have I spoken 
unto you that my joy might remain in you and 
that your joy might be full." Happiness and 
joy are not the same. Happiness is conditioned 
upon circumstances, but joy is independent of 
external surroundings. Happiness is a hu- 
man product; joy is a divine fruit, even the 
fruit of the Spirit. Joy is not always spon- 
taneous. It is a gift of God. Just as God drew 
water from the rock at Rephidim so He can 
cause joy to spring up and abound. 

But joy is not only the result of reckoning 
and resting, it may also be the cause of faith 
and trust. Joy is seed as well as fruit. Rejoic- 
ing is a congenial atmosphere for faith and 
trust. In other words, if one will persistently 
cultivate a spirit of rejoicing under all cir- 
cumstances, he will find it easy to believe God, 
while trust will spring up spontaneously in his 
heart. In fact, any one of these three things 
will produce the other two; but perhaps the 



154 The Still Small Voice 

shortest cut to faith and trust is through the 
persistent cultivation of a spirit of joy. 

Reckoning, resting and rejoicing — what a 
beautiful trinity of Christian graces ! How 
simple they are ! How easy to obtain and yet 
how glorious their results in character and in 
conduct. Beloved, learn this secret of the 
three R's, and pass it on to others. 



TWO OMNIPOTENT FORCES 

"For with God all things are possible" (Mark x. 
27). 

"All things are possible to him that believeth" 
(Mark ix. 23). 

THESE verses tell us of two omnipotent 
forces, — the power of God and the faith 
of the believer. 

In some ways the power of God is absolute, 
and in other ways it is conditioned by faith. In 
the work of creation and redemption the om- 
nipotent power of God is absolute. Before 
man was created God brought the heavens and 
the earth into existence and upheld and pre- 
served the orderly course of nature. Moreover, 
in redemption God wrought wholly independ- 
ent of man. We read that the Lamb of God 
was slain before the foundation of the world. 
Faith had no part in the work of God in crea- 
tion, nor in the work of Christ in redemption. 

In the realm of grace the power of God is 
conditioned by faith. In the Gospels we are 
told that in some cities Christ could not do 



156 The Still Small Voice 

many mighty works because of unbelief. In- 
deed, in many instances He made faith the 
condition of receiving His healing power. 
Thus, to the poor distracted father at the foot 
of Hermon Jesus said, "If thou canst believe 
all things are possible to him that believeth." 
The man had just made a pitiful appeal to the 
Master : "If Thou canst do anything have com- 
passion on us and help us." In His reply 
Christ virtually said : It is not a question of 
My power but of your faith; thus clearly 
showing that the manifestation of divine power 
in the realm of grace is conditioned by faith. 
In the ministry of the apostles we see the 
same vital relation between God's power and 
man's faith. Thus at Lystra before Paul re- 
stored the impotent man we are told that the 
apostle looking upon him perceived that he had 
faith to be healed. Here then we see the om- 
nipotence of faith; it is omnipotent not in it- 
self, but in its vital connection with the om- 
nipotent power of God. In one aspect faith is 
all weakness, in another aspect it is all strength. 
Considered alone faith is impotent; considered 
in living relation to the power of God it is om- 



Quiet Hour Talks 157 

nipotent. As an end in itself faith is nothing. 
As a means to an end it is everything. Thus, 
the weakness and strength of faith is the weak- 
ness and strength of a condition. Take one or 
two illustrations of this truth. A coil of cop- 
per wire has of course a certain commercial 
value, but taken by itself it is practically use- 
less. But if properly strung and insulated it 
becomes an electric conductor over which mes- 
sages may be sent thousands of miles. So 
faith is the connecting wire which attaches 
our hearts to the throne of God. It is nothing 
save as it is the means by which the divine life 
and power touch our lives. Again, up in the 
hills is a clear sparkling spring. Down in a 
farmyard in the valley is a gushing stream of 
cool sweet water. How does the water from the 
spring get to the farmyard? A pipe has been 
laid which conducts it thither. The pipe itself 
is of little value but becomes all important as 
the channel through which the water flows. So 
faith is the channel through which the springs 
of God pour their living water into the valley 
of human need. 

Several years ago the government blew up 



158 The Still Small Voice 

the rocks in Hell Gate in the East River that 
had been so long a menace to navigation. The 
work was entrusted to General Newton. For 
months the submarine rocks were drilled and 
charged with dynamite. Wires were strung 
from each charge to the shore and there con- 
nected with General Newton's office. In the 
office was a little button by the pressure of 
which the rocks would be blown up. The ex- 
plosion was set for a given day. A notification 
was printed in all the newspapers directing the 
factories, stores and houses for miles around 
to have all windows fastened securely, and to 
have glassware and all other easily breakable 
articles put safely away. At the appointed time 
a representative company gathered in General 
Newton's office. A whole city breathed expect- 
antly. One of the most gigantic engineering 
feats of the century was about to be accom- 
plished. At a given signal General Newton's lit- 
tle four year old daughter stretched forth her 
tiny hand, and gently pressed the electric but- 
ton. A terrific explosion followed which shook 
Greater New York from center to circumfer- 
ence. A mammoth column of water and gi- 



Quiet Hour Talks 159 

gantic rocks were thrown hundreds of feet in 
the air. The work was completely successful 
and the channel at Hell Gate was open. Tiny 
baby fingers had set free the awful power of 
dynamite which had done the work. So faith 
is the baby fingers that puts into operation the 
forces of God's omnipotence. Faith, so to 
speak, presses the button ; God does the rest. 

The possibilities of faith are as infinite as 
God Himself. A little key has been put into 
our hands that will unlock all the treasures of 
the universe. The air was full of electricity 
before Franklin's time, but no one knew how to 
utilize it until he brought it down to earth by 
the simple means of flying a kite with a wire 
and a key. Many believers are like people 
famishing in the midst of plenty. They have 
not discovered nor are they making use of the 
omnipotence of faith. Faith is the key to the 
possession of our full inheritance in Christ. 
Faith reinforced by prayer is the secret of "the 
evangelization of the world in the present gen- 
eration." Faith brings the supply of every 
need for body, soul and spirit. Again, faith is 
the measure of blessing. Christ's standard was, 



160 The Still Small Voice 

"According to your faith be it unto you." This 
refers not to the quantity but to the quality of 
faith. It doesn't take a bonfire to blow up a 
powder magazine ; a spark is sufficient. Christ 
taught that faith as a grain of mustard was 
enough to remove a mountain, and uproot a 
tree. The mustard seed is small, but it is a liv- 
ing germ ; so faith may be small but it must be 
unmixed with doubt. A grain of doubt de- 
stroys faith just as a scratch on the back of a 
mirror ruins it. 

Beloved, such an omnipotent power put into 
our hands by God entails a commensurate re- 
sponsibility for its use. The exercise of faith 
is not only a glorious privilege, it is a solemn 
duty. The greatest sin is unbelief. If we do 
not use this lever of faith in God for the spir- 
itual uplifting not only of our own lives but of 
other lives bound to us by the ties of blood 
and of common service in the Gospel of Christ, 
we shall be like the man who hid his talent in a 
napkin and shall deserve and receive his pun- 
ishment. 

There is encouragement for all in the fact 
that faith is the srift of God. It is not a natur- 



Quiet Hour Talks 161 

al endowment which only the favored few may 
enjoy. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. The 
fact that faith is divine is the explanation of its 
omnipotence. Anything God-given partakes of 
the nature of God. Faith is just one of the 
manifestations of God in the soul. Again, 
the fact that faith is divine explains our re- 
sponsibility for possessing and using it. If 
we have not the faith of God it must be because 
we have not asked God to confer this divine 
gift upon us. If we are not exercising the 
faith that God has given it must be because w r e 
have failed to realize that God's command- 
ments are enablements. 



PREPARATIONS OF GRACE 

"The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the 
learned, that I should know how to speak a word in 
season to him that is weary : he wakeneth morning by 
morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learn- 
ed. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was 
not rebellious, neither turned away back" (Isa. 1. 4, 
5). 

THIS is one of those passages in the pro- 
phetical books of the Old Testament which 
commentators are at loss whether to re- 
fer to the prophets themselves or to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. However, our purpose does not 
require us to touch this question, for we are 
concerned not with the primary meaning of 
this passage nor with its typical import, but 
rather with its spiritual application to believers. 
These verses tell us of five prepared things, — 
preparations of grace, they may be called. 
They are: the prepared soil, the prepared 
seed, the prepared tongue, the prepared ear and 
the prepared heart. 

First, The prepared soil. 

It is a familiar figure to compare the hu- 



Quiet Hour Talks 163 

man heart to soil. Jesus does this in the par- 
able of the sower. The expression "him that 
is weary" is the phrase in verse four which 
we take as the prepared soil. It is a beautiful 
and suggestive phrase. The word translated 
"weary" means also "weak" or "faint." The 
world is full of faint and weary hearts, hungry 
for the bread of life. Glance over a congrega- 
tion assembled in the average church on a 
Sunday morning and see what spiritual hun- 
ger is depicted in their faces. Gaze at your 
fellow passengers in the street or ferry boat 
and notice what suffering and dissatisfied faces 
they have. Then look at the darkened and even 
desperate faces of the heathen world. Every- 
where are fainting and weary hearts. Of 
course this condition of spiritual hunger is 
not always recognized. Men follow the mad 
pursuit of wealth. Women enter the giddy 
world of society. Theaters are filled and 
pleasure resorts of all kinds are thronged. The 
face of the world is light and gay, but its heart 
is heavy and sad. Then again, God is specially 
preparing many hearts to receive the good 
seed of the Gospel. Sorrow and suffering are 



164 The Still Small Voice 

wasting many lives. Business reverses and 
domestic bereavements are saddening many 
homes. God is breaking up the fallow ground. 
The soil is being softened by tears of sorrow. 
All around us are hungry hearts. 

Second, The prepared seed. 

The Word of God is likened to seed. But 
there is seed and seed. One kind of seed 
will mature in one soil while another kind of 
seed will thrive best in different ground. In 
verse four the phrase which we call the pre- 
pared seed is "a word in season." In the Re- 
vised Version this word is said to "sustain" 
him that is weary. The whole Word of God 
is seed, but its various parts are adapted to 
different purposes. This fourth verse gives 
a good definition of what is often spoken of as 
a message. A message is "a word in season.*' 
It is the truth of God applied to the present 
need of the hearer. There are seeds in the 
Word of God adapted to all kinds of soil. 
There are messages applicable to "all classes 
and conditions of men." For the impenitent 
there is a word of warning and judgment. For 
the sinner there is a word of salvation. For 



Quiet Hour Talks 165 

the distracted there is a word of peace. For 
the sorrowful there is a message of joy. For 
the weak there is a word of strength. For the 
embittered there is a message of divine love. 

Third, The prepared tongue. 

After the soil has been prepared and the 
right seed selected the sower must do his 
work. The seed must be scattered. In this 
case the sower is the tongue. The Lord must 
prepare the tongue to speak the word in sea- 
son to him that is weary. In the Epistle of 
James we learn the power of the tongue for 
good or for evil. It is a little member, yet it 
may be set on fire of hell. By nature the 
tongue is the spokesman of the evil heart 
and is the fountain of cursing and wickedness. 
The tongue needs to be converted and sancti- 
fied in order that it may speak the words of 
blessing and goodness. What grace can do for 
the tongue is seen in the fact that God has 
chosen this little member as the means of the 
evangelization of the world. The cloven 
tongues at Pentecost were the symbol of the 
human tongue tipped with the fire of the Holy 
Ghost. 



166 The Still Small Voice 

But the tongue not only needs conversion; 
it needs discipline and training. We read that 
the Lord God hath given me "the tongue of 
the learned" ("the instructed," R. V.) ; the 
tongue has to learn how to speak a word in 
season. An illustration of this fact is the way 
a baby has to learn to talk. Slowly he learns 
the meaning of words and acquires the art 
of putting words together in sentences. An- 
other illustration is the slow and often painful 
process by which one learns a foreign language. 
So the Lord has to teach us to speak the words 
of life. The language of Canaan is not nat- 
ural to the tongue. Again, how prone we 
are to speak our own words. The language of 
ambition, of self-seeking, of man's wisdom 
presses upon us for utterance. But we have to 
die to all this. We have to learn, like John the 
Baptist, to be simply a voice, content to let 
the Lord articulate that voice with the words 
which the Holy Ghost teacheth. We must 
learn by much discipline and training to let 
our own messages die no matter how beauti- 
ful and eloquent they may seem, and be will- 
ing to speak "the word in season" which God 



Quiet Hour Talks 167 

will surely give if we will patiently wait for 
it. 

Fourth, The prepared ear. 

Back of the tongue that speaks the word in 
season is the ear that receives it from God. So, 
in the next place the ear must be prepared 
to hear aright. What a beautiful expression, 
"He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learn- 
ed. " The ear has been filled with the wax of 
heedlessness and indifference; and now God 
has to bore out the ear so that the sense of 
spiritual hearing will be acute and sensitive. 
The physical sense of hearing must be edu- 
cated. The musician needs a trained ear just 
as an artist needs a trained eye. The finer 
discrimination of tones and colors comes only 
after patient discipline. In the same way the 
ear of the believer must be trained to distin- 
guish the voice of the Lord. The soil may 
be prepared and the seed at hand and the sow- 
er ready to scatter it; but he may not know 
the right seed for the right soil. In like man- 
ner, the believer may be ready to speak God's 
message to weary hearts, but he may not know 
just what that message is. The right message 



168 The Still Small Voice 

is received by the prepared ear. When the Lord 
first spoke to Samuel in the night he did not 
know His voice and ran to Eli to find out 
what to do. Often God speaks to us, but we 
do not know His voice. We have not got the 
ear of the learned. This verse tells us that 
God wakes us in the early morning and speaks 
to us. Sometimes we find ourselves awake 
at an unusually early hour. We immediately 
begin to wonder what the matter is and are 
apt to chafe a little in our spirit over the 
prospect of the loss of an hour or two of sleep. 
We try again and again to fall asleep and toss 
around restlessly until our usual hour for get- 
ting up. Beloved, has it occurred to you that 
it is God that often thus awakens us that He 
may whisper His heart messages in our inner 
ear? Our days are so filled with work that 
we do not make time to get alone with God, 
so He wakes us up early for communion and 
prayer. Oh, how much we lose at such times 
by restless tossing on our beds and by chafing 
in our spirit over losing a little sleep. The 
next time you have this experience get very 
quiet; look up into the face of your heavenly 



Quiet Hour Talks 169 

Father and say with little Samuel, "Speak, 
Lord, for Thy servant heareth." This is the 
way and the only way to get the prepared 
ear. 

Fifth, The prepared heart. 

The last preparation of grace mentioned in 
this passage is the prepared heart. "When the 
Lord opened mine ear I was not rebellious, 
neither turned away back." It is true that 
the word heart does not occur, but rebellious- 
ness and turning backwards can only be spoken 
of the heart and the will. Even back of the 
ear is the heart that needs to be controlled by 
God. The soil, the seed, the tongue and the 
ear may all be prepared, but if the heart be 
rebellious the grace of God is frustrated. What 
a beautiful series these five preparations of 
grace form. And the wonderful thing about 
them is that we may run them either back- 
wards or forwards. One direction will be the 
divine method of working, and the other di- 
rection will be the human method of working. 
These verses begin with the soil and work 
back to the yielded spirit. This is the human 
method which works from without toward 



170 The Still Small Voice 

the center. But God starts at the center and 
works outward. So He begins by preparing 
our hearts. When the heart is prepared He 
can reach the ear; when the ear is prepared 
He can reach the tongue; when the tongue is 
prepared He can give the message; and when 
the message is received He can sustain through 
us him that is weary. 



INWROUGHT AND OUTWROUGHT 
PRAYER 

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
availeth much" (James v. 16). 

THIS verse tells us three things about 
prayer : 
The kind of man God hears, 

The kind of prayer God answers, 

The kind of answer God gives. 

Elijah is set forth as the divine illustration of 
this verse; consequently, let us turn to his life 
for light upon these points. 

First, The kind of man God hears. 

There are two expressions which describe 
the character of the man God hears, when he 
prays ; these are "of like passions" and "right- 
eous." 

Elijah we are told was a man of like pas- 
sions with us. The word "passions" is not 
to be understood in the sense of lusts; it sig- 
nifies rather "nature," as the marginal reading 
gives it. The meaning is that Elijah was not 



172 The Still Small Voice 

an angel nor a saint as the word is commonly 
used ; he was a man intensely human, and sub- 
ject to the frailties and infirmities of the race. 
In a word, he was a man just as we are. Re- 
call the character of Elijah and observe how 
like us he was. He was a rugged man by na- 
ture and by habit, a child of the desert, a verita- 
ble Bedouin courier and scout. He was cap- 
able alike of fiery indignation and of almost wo- 
manly tenderness. In his zeal for Jehovah he 
rebuked king Ahab for his wicked reign and 
slew at Mount Carmel four hundred and fifty 
prophets of Baal; yet he became frightened 
at the threat of Queen Jezebel and "ran away 
from a woman." He became discouraged; 
and, lying under a juniper tree in the desert, 
wished that he might die. Poor Elijah ! How 
much like us he was ! At how many points 
he touched our common life. 

Again, Elijah was a righteous man. There 
are places in the New Testament where the 
word "righteous" is equal to "perfect" ; as for 
example, "Be ye perfect even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." Here, how- 
ever, the word means "upright," "sincere," 



Quiet Hour Talks 173 



"true." We know this partly because the 
word occurs in the Epistle of James. James 
is the apostle of practical righteousness ; 
he does not make fine ethical distinc- 
tions like Paul. For another reason we 
know that "righteous" here means sincere and 
upright because it has an Old Testament ap- 
plication, and uniformly throughout the Old 
Testament the word "righteous" does not signi- 
fy moral perfection. Thus God said to Abra- 
ham, "Walk before Me and be thou perfect" 
(Gen. xvii. I ) . Abraham had been zig-zagging ; 
now the Lord wanted him to walk straight; not 
to wobble, but stand upright. Elijah was a man 
of like passions with us, but he was righteous. 
He was a sincere, upright, true-hearted man. 
He loved God and like Caleb of old followed 
Him wholly. With all his frailties and in- 
firmities, however, Elijah's spirit pointed God- 
ward, just as the needle points toward the pole. 
He delivered God's messages without fear or 
hesitation. He rebuked sin and pronounced 
judgment in high places. When the whole 
nation was going after Baal he thought that 
he alone stood true to Jehovah. Faithful Eli- 



174 The Still Small Voice 

jahl As he was like us in his nature, so 
may we be like him in his devotion. 

Beloved, this is the kind of man God hears. 
He does not expect us to be angels or saints. 
But he does expect us to be upright, sincere 
and true. Those whom God accepts are men 
and women living on the ordinary plane of 
life with frailties and infirmities. This just 
means you and me ; but we must be righteous. 
If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord 
will not hear us. We must put away all known 
sin from our hearts. We must not indulge in 
things questionable or doubtful lest our pray- 
ers be hindered. We must live void of offense 
toward God and man. 

Second, The kind of prayer God answers. 

This verse also gives us the character of the 
prayer God answers. The Authorized Ver- 
sion describes it as "the effectual, fervent 
prayer." The Revised Version renders it quite 
differently, — "The supplication of a righteous 
man availeth much in its working/ 3 The Greek 
word of which these are translations comes 
from a root which gives us our English words 
"energy," "energetic," "energized." Literally, 



Quiet Hour Talks 175 

then, we might read, "The energized prayer of 
a righteous man availeth much." Breaking up 
this expression "energized prayer" we find 
two thoughts underlying it. An energized pray- 
er is a prayer that is first inwr ought by the 
Holy Spirit and then outwrought by the same 
Spirit. In a word, then, the prayer that God 
answers is first put into our hearts by the 
Spirit, and then prayed out through our 
hearts by the Spirit. Elijah on Mount Carmel 
furnishes an illustration of this kind of pray- 
er. After the slaughter of the prophets of 
Baal the prophet said to Ahab, "Get thee up, 
eat and drink, for there is the sound of abun- 
dance of rain" (I. Kings xviii. 41). Whence 
came the sound of abundance of rain? The 
earth beneath was withered and parched. The 
burning sun beat down fiercely from a cloud- 
less sky. Not a breath of air was stirring. 
How did the prophet get the sound of rain? 
Why, the rain was falling in his heart. The 
sound of the windstorm fell upon his inner 
ear. The time for the rain had come; and 
the Lord had put it into His servant's heart 



176 The Still Small Voice 

to pray. The prayer for rain was being in- 
wrought in Elijah's spirit. 

But now notice the next step. "And Elijah 
went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed 
himself down to the earth and he put his face 
between his knees." What does this mean? 
Why, this is the next stage of the prayer. 
This was the outworking on his knees of the 
prayer that God had already put in his heart. 
The attitude is expressive of intensity and 
earnestness. James tells us that Elijah "prayed 
earnestly." The literal rendering is, "He prayed 
a prayer." See the prophet on his knees. He is 
wrestling with God. His mind is exalted to a 
high pitch. His physical frame is tense with 
deep emotion. Ah, the Spirit of God is pray- 
ing out through him the prayer that has been 
laid upon his heart. Seven times he sends 
his servant to look out over the sea, and 
seven times he closes in with God in an agony 
of prayer. At last the lad reports the appear- 
ance of a little cloud, arising out of the sea, 
like a man's hand. It is enough. The answer 
has come. It is time for action. 

Beloved, the kind of prayer that God an- 



Quiet Hour Talks 177 

swers must be first inwrought and then out- 
wrought by the Holy Ghost. God lays upon 
your heart some burden, and as one has re- 
cently said the answer to prayer is in the bur- 
den itself. In a strange way the Lord puts 
upon your heart the conversion of some soul, 
the need of some saint under pressure of se- 
vere trial, or the lost condition of the heathen 
world. This is the first stage of prayer, a 
prayer inwrought by the Holy Ghost. This 
burden is not of your own choice and you can- 
not get out from under it, try as you will. 
Now, you have to pray the matter through to 
victory. Like a fever that has gotten into the 
system the thing has to work itself out. You 
may say, if the Lord puts the burden of prayer 
upon the heart and the assurance of the an- 
swer is in the burden, what is the need of 
praying about it; will not the answer come 
anyway ? Although this is a profound mystery 
it touches the very philosophy of prayer. It 
is just because the Lord puts the burden on 
your heart with the assurance of the answer 
that you have to pray. Prayer doesn't make 
God more willing to answer ; nor does it make 



178 The Still Small Voice 

the answer more certain. But by divine ap- 
pointment it is a necessary process in getting 
things from God. It is by prayer that our 
own hearts are prepared to receive the answer. 
By prayer difficulties are overcome and obsta- 
cles removed. Undoubtedly, prayer in some 
mysterious way enables God to send the an- 
swer. Consequently the outwrought prayer 
is as necessary as the inwrought prayer. Eli- 
jah's praying seven times on Mount Carmel 
does not mean that we are to pray exactly sev- 
en times or seventy-seven times. Of course 
seven is the number of perfection ; and the fact 
that Elijah prayed seven times simply teaches 
us that we are to keep on praying till God re- 
moves the burden and gives us the victory. 
Never mind delays; they simply try our faith 
and develop our patience. When the Lord 
thus puts the spirit of prayer in your hearts 
just take hold of the horns of the altar and 
resolve to hang on till something gives way. 
Say with Jacob, "I will not let Thee go except 
Thou bless me." When you get so you can 
say that j the victory will soon be yours. 
Elijah knew when to cease praying and be- 



Quiet Hour Talks 179 

gin acting. He did not wait for the storm 
clouds to fill the sky and the rain to fall in 
torrents. As soon as he saw the cloud like a 
man's hand arising out of the sea he began 
to give directions to Ahab for protection from 
the coming storm. The time for praying had 
ceased; the time for action had come. So we 
must recognize the place of praise as well as 
the place of prayer. There is a point beyond 
which supplication may be said to hinder the 
answer, for it is evidence of unbelief. This 
point is reached when God rolls away the bur- 
den of prayer from our hearts and implants 
the conviction that He has heard and answered. 
After that, the spirit of praise and thanksgiv- 
ing is the surest evidence of faith and the quick- 
est method of realizing the full answer to our 
prayers. Beloved, learn to recognize the an- 
swers to your prayers in your spirit rather 
than in your circumstances. Don't wait for 
appearances to confirm God's word. Remem- 
ber that the little cloud means a thunder storm. 
And the spirit of joy and praise means that 
God is working out in your life the full victory. 
"He giveth songs in the night." 



180 The Still Small Voice 

Third , The kind of answer God gives. 

In James we read, "The heaven gave rain 
and the earth brought forth her fruit." Heav- 
en and earth comprise the universe. May not 
the meaning be that when a righteous man 
prays in the Spirit the answer that God sends 
touches the universe? Not only is the imme- 
diate need of the man himself supplied, but 
forces are set in operation which cause streams 
of blessing to flow to the whole world. But 
may not the meaning also be that to answer 
prayer which He Himself has inspired the 
Lord will lay under tribute the resources of 
His omnipotence? The power of heaven and 
earth is at the disposal of a saint on his knees. 
The fertility of the earth and the wind and rain 
of heaven are under God's control. 

Some years ago a western city was visited 
by a cyclone. It was Sunday afternoon and 
the superintendent of a Sunday school was 
sitting on his piazza with his three motherless 
children. He saw the sky blackened and rec- 
ognized that his home was directly in the path 
of the storm. Quickly kneeling with his chil- 
dren he prayed the God of the winds to spare 



Quiet Hour Talks 181 

their lives. His prayer was answered. It was 
found the next day that within three blocks 
of this godly man's home, the path of the cy- 
clone had changed. Nay, God Himself had 
diverted the cyclone. Surely in this case the 
prayer of a righteous man had availed much. 
The God of Elijah is still our God; but it 
takes Elijah's faith to call forth His power. 



LIGHT IN DARKNESS 

"Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that 
obeyeth the voice of His servant? He that walketh 
in darkness and hath no light, let him trust in the 
name of Jehovah and rely upon his God" (Isa. 1. 10, 
R.V.). 

WHAT shall the believer do in times of 
darkness? To many this will sound 
like a strange question. It will be 
asked, "Has the believer anything to do with 
darkness?" Is it not written, "God is Light 
and in Him is no darkness at all" ? Moreover, 
Jesus said, "I am the Light of the world; he 
that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, 
but shall have the light of life." Surely, such 
Scriptural statements as these seem to settle 
the matter. Yes, they do ; so far at least as the 
darkness of sin and unbelief is concerned. If 
such darkness overtake the believer, it is be- 
cause he is out of the will of God. But the 
darkness spoken of in this verse is not the 
darkness of doubt or sin. It is rather the 
darkness of ignorance and uncertainty; the 



Quiet Hour Talks 183 

darkness of perplexity and confusion, not of 
heart but of mind. In this sense of the word 
times of darkness come to the faithful and 
believing disciple who is walking obediently 
in the will of God; seasons when he does not 
know what to do, nor which way to turn. Lit- 
erally, the word "darkness" means "dark plac- 
es." For every Christian at times the spiritual 
sky is overcast with clouds. The clear light of 
heaven does not shine upon his pathway. One 
feels as if he were groping his way in the 
darkness. 

We may be certain that the darkness referred 
to in our text is not the darkness of doubt and 
disobedience, because of the character of the 
man who has this experience. "Who is among 
you that feareth Jehovah, that obeyeth the 
voice of His servant?" The expression "among 
you" refers, of course, to the people of God. 
The man is not outside but inside the house- 
hold of faith. He is said to "fear" the Lord. 
In the Old Testament the word "fear" comes 
to mean very much the same as "love" in the 
New Testament. It is not the slavish fear of ter- 
ror and bondage, but the godly fear of confi- 



184 The Still Small Voice 

dence and freedom. Moreover, this man is said 
to obey the voice of "Jehovah's servant." Jeho- 
vah's servant is, of course, Christ. The word 
"obey" may be rendered "hearken." This, then, 
is the character of the man that is walking in 
dark places, that is in trouble, and that has no 
light. He loves God sincerely, and obeys Him 
implicitly. 

Beloved, is not this you? While you may 
not be willing to profess to be on a plane of 
Christian experience, yet, if you are God's child 
at all, you must love Him sincerely and obey 
His voice implicitly. It is to you, then, that 
this verse declares times of darkness will come. 
Indeed, no believer lives without them. Joseph 
got into a dark place in Pharaoh's prison. Mo- 
ses must have found dark places in the wilder- 
ness during his forty years' sojourn there. The 
psalms abound in allusions to similar exper- 
iences. David often got into a tight place, but 
the Lord always helped him out again. Paul 
was often put into hard straits, and he assures 
us that we shall have them too. Listen to him, 
"We are pressed on every side, yet not strait- 
ened ; perplexed yet not unto despair ; pursued 



Quiet Hour Talks 185 

yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not de- 
stroyed (II. Cor. iv. 8, 9, R.V.). 

But what shall the believer do in times of 
darkness ; listen : "Let him trust in the name 
of the Lord and rely upon his God." 

First, Let him trust in the name of the Lord. 

The first thing to do is to do nothing; just 
trust. This is a hard thing for poor human 
nature to do. Out on the western plains there 
is a familiar saying which runs on this wise, 
"When you're rattled, don't rush." Josh Bil- 
lings used to say, "When you don't know what 
to do, don't do it." These homely sayings just 
hit the nail on the head. The believer who has 
no light surely does not know what to do; 
therefore he should do nothing. "Let him trust 
in the name of the Lord." See that steamer 
as she runs her nose into a fog bank. The 
captain knows it would be dangerous to go 
ahead, full steam. So he slows down, and 
at regular intervals blows the whistle or fog 
horn. Beloved, when you run into a spirit- 
ual fog bank, don't tear ahead; slow down 
the machinery of your life. If necessary, an- 
chor your bark or let it swing at its moorings. 



186 The Still Small Voice 

You remember when Paul was shipwrecked on 
his way to Rome we are told that the sailors 
cast four anchors out of the ship, and wished 
for the day. Now that is what trusting means. 
"The name of the Lord" just means the Lord 
Himself; the name stands for the nature and 
for the person who bears it. The word trans- 
lated "trust" may also be rendered "confi- 
dence." Confidence is a hopeful trust. It is 
not a blind, passive submission to a hopeless 
state of things, but rather a confident expecta- 
tion that everything will soon be made right. 

Now, why do you suppose this advice is 
given? For the simple reason that while we 
trust God can work. Worry prevents Him 
from doing anything for us. If our minds are 
distracted and our hearts are distressed ; if the 
darkness that overshadows us strikes terror to 
us ; if we run hither and yon in a vain effort to 
find some way of escape out of a dark place of 
trial, where divine providence has put us, the 
Lord can do nothing for us. The peace of 
God must quiet our minds and rest our hearts. 
We must put our hand in the hand of God and 



Quiet Hour Talks 187 

like a little child let Him lead us out into the 
bright sunshine of His love and blessing. 

Second, Let him rely upon his God. 

The next thing to do when you get into a 
dark place of trouble or sorrow is to rely upon 
God. To rely upon God is very much the same 
as to trust Him ; yet there is a difference. The 
word "rely" may be translated "stayed" : "Let 
him stay upon his God" (A.V.). The figure is 
that of leaning upon some one for strength or 
support. Trust in God gives you rest, but reli- 
ance upon God gives you strength. Trust pre- 
cedes reliance ; and until you trust, God can do 
nothing for you. Trust in God makes you 
quiet and restful even when you cannot under- 
stand things. Reliance upon God gives you 
the assurance not only that God understands 
the situation, but that He is working out your 
deliverance every moment you trust. You are 
also confident that the Lord is leading you 
nearer and nearer the light, and that soon you 
will be once more walking under sunlit skies. 
Not only are you to commit the dark place unto 
God, but you yourself are to rely upon Him. 
This means that you are to lean hard upon 



188 The Still Small Voice 

Him. Settle down until your whole weight 
is resting upon God. 

There is a story told of a traveler trudging 
along by the roadside with a heavy load upon 
his shoulder. A man in a wagon overtook 
him and invited him to ride. The weary trav- 
eler climbed up and took a seat, but contin- 
ued to carry the load on his shoulder. His 
kind-hearted friend asked him why he did not 
throw his load down in the bottom of the wa- 
gon. "Oh," said the poor fellow, "it's a good 
deal for you to give me a ride; I could not 
think of asking you to carry my load too." Lots 
of us are just like this traveler, but God will 
carry both our loads and our own selves. Let 
us rely upon the Lord if we are in a dark 
place. He knows the way out of the woods. 
Let us climb up into His arms and trust Him 
to take us out by the shortest and surest road. 
What a beautiful expression — "His God." It 
is not only rely upon God, but rely upon his 
God. It makes the personal relation very real. 
David said, "The Lord is my Shepherd." Paul 
said, "My God shall supply all your need." 
Beloved, the God of David and Paul is your 



Quiet Hour Talks 189 

God and my God. We belong to Him and He 
belongs to us. "My Beloved is mine and I am 
His." This intimate personal relation gives 
you the right to rely upon and trust Him. 
Surely, His heart is grieved when we do not 
trust Him, and when we refuse to rely upon 
Him. He knows the way, let us trust Him ; He 
can get us out of our trouble, let us depend 
upon Him. 

In verse eleven there is a solemn warning to 
all those who walk in darkness, and yet who 
try to help themselves out into the light. They 
are represented as kindling a fire, and compass- 
ing themselves with sparks. Therefore, God 
says, they shall walk in the light of their fire, 
and in the sparks that they have kindled. But 
the light will not guide them out of their diffi- 
culty, and we are told that they shall lie down 
in sorrow. Now, what does this mean ? Why, 
it means that when we are in darkness the 
temptation is to find a way without trusting 
in the Lord and relying upon Him. Instead of 
letting Him help us out, we try to help our- 
selves out. We seek the light of nature and 
get the advice of our friends. We try the 



190 The Still Small Voice 

conclusions of our reason, and might almost be 
tempted to accept a way of deliverance which 
would not be of God at all. All these are fires 
of our own kindling; rushlights that will surely 
lead us on to the shoals. And God will let us 
walk in the light of these sparks, but the end 
will be sorrow. Beloved, do not try to get out 
of a dark place, except in God's time and in 
God's way. The time of trouble is meant to 
teach you lessons that you sorely need. Prema- 
ture deliverance may frustrate God's work of 
grace in your life. Just commit the whole 
situation to Him. Be willing to abide in dark- 
ness so long as you have His presence. Re- 
member that it is better to walk in the dark 
with God, than to walk alone in the light. 
"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also 
in Him; and He shall bring it to pass" (Ps. 
xxxvii. 5). 



THE CAUSE AND CURE OF RELIGIOUS 
DESPONDENCY 

I. Kings, Chapters 18 and 19. 

RELIGIOUS DESPONDENCY" sounds 
like a paradox. Religion and despond- 
ency do not seem to have anything in 
common. The keynote of the Christian life is 
joy. "The joy of the Lord is your strength/* 
"Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say 
rejoice.'' Nevertheless, seasons of despondency 
do come to the faithful servant of the Lord. 
At such times the sense of depression is very 
real, and the need of divine help very urgent. 
For the believer who is suffering from relig- 
ious despondency, the story of Elijah under 
the juniper tree is full of profit and comfort. 

There is a popular misunderstanding con- 
cerning the experience of Elijah on this occa- 
sion. It is held that after playing the part of 
a national religious hero on Mt. Carmel, 
where he had slain four hundred and fifty false 
prophets of Baal, he suddenly turned coward 



192 The Still Small Voice 

and "ran away from a woman !" There was, 
however, a natural cause for Elijah's de- 
spondency under the juniper tree; and there 
w r as a divine remedy which restored the faint- 
ing and discouraged prophet once more to 
valiant leadership in Israel. Let us first no- 
tice the cause of Elijah's fit of despondency and 
then consider the cure, which lifted him out of 
it. We shall find that under similar condi- 
tions the Lord deals with the discouraged work- 
er of today just as He dealt with this prophet 
of old. 

First, The cause of Elijah's despondency. 

The cause that led to Elijah's despondency 
was in part physical. For three years and a 
half he had been hunted like a wild beast by 
Ahab. For much of this time he had lived 
far from the haunts of man in a desert ravine. 
Moreover, he had just undergone upon Mt. 
Carmel a severe strain upon his physical pow- 
ers. Perhaps with his own hands he had slain 
the false prophets of Baal. Immediately after 
that bloody scene he had ascended Mt. Carmel 
and wrestled with God in prevailing prayer 
for rain. Afterwards, without stopping to rest 



Quiet Hour Talks 193 

he had girded up his loins, and run afoot like 
a Bedouin courier, by the side of the chariot 
of Ahab, from Mt. Carmel to the city of Jez- 
reel, a distance of about twenty miles. Final- 
ly, already exhausted with his labors and un- 
der the threat of Jezebel, he had in great haste 
taken a long journey southward into the wil- 
derness of Judea. Thus Elijah's body was 
overtaxed, and his physical powers were ex- 
hausted. 

The second cause of Elijah's despondency 
was mental. Like his body, his mind had 
been much overtaxed. For one thing he had 
long opposed, single-handed, the idolatrous 
worship of Israel, and the wicked schemes of 
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Again, the scene 
of the slaying of the false priests of Baal must 
have been a harrowing one. Moreover, his 
prolonged season of prayer on the mountain 
top had meant a severe mental strain. He 
had wrestled with God with intensity of spir- 
it. Both his mind and his body had been 
wrought up to a high pitch of excitement. 
Moreover, the threat of Jezebel came to a mind 
already jaded and worn. He had probably 



194 The Still Small Voice 

gone a long period without eating or resting. 
In the desolation of the wilderness the proph- 
et suffered a reaction from the intense excite- 
ment of the scene through which he had just 
passed. From one extreme of spiritual exal- 
tation he went to the other extreme of religious 
despondency. Thus spiritually, mentally and 
physically the old prophet of the Lord was in 
a condition susceptible to temptation. He 
thought he was no better than his fathers ; he 
regarded his life work as ended ; and there ly- 
ing under the juniper tree, he prayed that he 
might die. 

Elijah is the type of the discouraged Chris- 
tian worker. Such spells of despondency oc- 
casionally get possession of the believer today. 
Although the cause of the prophet's depression 
was deeper, yet it was a very little thing that 
threw him into that condition — the angry 
threat of a wicked woman. So it oftentimes 
takes but a very little thing, when the condi- 
tions are right, to plunge the believer into de- 
spondency. Satan always takes advantage of a 
tired body and a jaded mind to bring discour- 
agement to the heart and depression to the 



Quiet Hour Talks 195 

spirit. Thus he came to our Saviour after His 
forty days' fast in the wilderness; and thus 
he will come to us. It is when we are worn 
out with service or suffering that the enemy 
comes in "like a flood." A tired body and 
an overtaxed mind can offer but feeble resist- 
ance to the assault of the devil. He finds an 
easy entrance into the citadel of the heart. It 
is in such seasons of mental and physical ex- 
haustion that we fall an easy prey to spiritual 
despondency. We are tempted to run away 
from our work. We are apt to think that our 
service for Christ is a failure, and that perhaps 
our life work is done. It would be a relief to 
us to get away under some juniper tree and 
wish that we might die. Beloved, have you 
ever been there? Do you know from expe- 
rience how Elijah felt? Perhaps some one 
who reads these lines is trying to find a juni- 
per tree. 

Second, The cure of Elijah's despondency. 

Having traced the despondency of Elijah to 
its cause, let us now notice the method the 
Lord took to cure him. 



196 The Still Small Voice 

i. The Lord ministered to his immediate 
physical necessities. 

It is true Elijah had run away from his 
work, and that he was out of the will of God. 
It is true also that he needed discipline, But 
did the Lord at once take him to task for his 
cowardly retreat from Jezebel? Did the Lord 
begin then and there to teach him the lessons 
he needed to learn? No; the prophet was in 
no condition to listen to a reproof even from 
the Lord. His spirit could not have stood 
the test of divine discipline at that time. Eli- 
jah was hungry and the Lord fed him ; he was 
tired and the Lord gave him rest and sleep. 
What an exquisite picture of tenderness and 
sympathy; Elijah asleep under the juniper 
tree and the angel of God feeding him. The 
Lord is a good nurse. 

Beloved, this is just the way the Lord deals 
with us when we get discouraged. Undoubt- 
edly we are fully conscious that something is 
wrong in our life, and we try very hard to 
straighten things out ; but the more we try, the 
more mixed things get. We find that we are 
too tired to think straight and too weary even 



Quiet Hour^Talks 197 

to pray the matter through with God. At such 
times the devil comes in like a flood. He tries 
to make us feel that we have done something 
terribly wrong, and must get hold of God about 
the matter. He drives us on to self-examina- 
tion and self-condemnation until our hearts are 
distressed and our minds are distracted. We 
feel that there is no physical, mental or spiritual 
rest for us until all the tangles in our life are 
straightened out. But dear friends, at such 
a time you cannot get things straight; all ef- 
forts in that direction simply wear you out. 
The Lord wants you to rest in His love. He 
wants you to cease your thinking and stay 
your mind upon Him. What you most need at 
such a time is good sleep and a wholesome diet 
and plenty of fresh air, and gentle exercise for 
your body, and some interesting diversion for 
your mind. But, you say, "I need to get things 
straight with God ; I need discipline ; I need to 
learn many lessons." Yes; but the Lord will 
see to all these things when you are able to bear 
them. His chief concern now is physical 
strength and mental relaxation and spiritual in- 
vigoration. 



198 The Still Small Voice 

2. The Lord sent Elijah to Mt. Horeb to en- 
joy a good vacation amid inspiring surround- 
ings. 

Having ministered to Elijah's immediate 
physical necessities, the Lord next led His 
servant to a place of mental relaxation and 
spiritual invigoration. Horeb was the mount 
of God. It was a sacred place in Israel's his- 
tory. There Jehovah had given His law to 
His people. Here Moses had spent forty days 
and forty nights alone with God. It was a 
place of majestic scenery around which clus- 
tered sacred memories and hallowed associa- 
tions. This was just the spot for Elijah to go 
for needed rest. Horeb was the mount of pray- 
er, communion and the presence of the Lord. 

Beloved, this is what God will do for us 
when we get discouraged in our work. The 
Lord knows the value of a good vacation. Je- 
sus said to His busy disciples, "Come ye apart 
in the desert and rest awhile." If they had not 
been willing to rest at Christ's bidding, they 
would not have been ready to work at His com- 
mand. Such a change of scenery and associa- 
tions where you can meet God in solitude, will 



Quiet Hour Talks 199 

soon tone up the body and retime the mind. It is 
often a great advantage to get away a little 
from one's work. In active service one is apt 
to lose the sense of spiritual perspective. One 
can see his work better at a distance. Especial- 
ly when one is worn out in body and in mind, is 
an entire change a great benefit. So the Lord 
may send you to Keswick or Northfield or 
Ocean Grove or Nyack Heights, or some oth- 
er equally favorable place where you can 
treathe a quiet and restful atmosphere. 

3. On Mt. Horeb, Elijah received a new vi- 
sion of himself and a new vision of God. 

This was the next step in the divine treat- 
ment of Elijah's despondency. After the proph- 
et had been rested and strengthened by a 
change of scenery and quiet meditation, he 
was ready for his lesson. The patient had been 
well nursed and put in good physical and men- 
tal condition before going under the Surgeon's 
knife. The Lord had not forgotten Elijah's 
spiritual welfare. The needed lessons had only 
been postponed until the learner was strong 
enough to receive them. A sojourn at Horeb 



200 The Still Small Voice 

prepared Elijah for all that the Lord had pre- 
pared for him. 

At the right moment the Lord tenderly but 
firmly asks, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" 
Lovingly and patiently God listens to the pa- 
thetic story of His disconsolate servant. The 
entire scene of Elijah's restoration is not re- 
corded. Modestly and appropriately God's 
heart to heart dealing with the discouraged 
prophet is veiled from our gaze. However, 
we may be sure that the Lord did not spare the 
pruning knife. He must have cut into Elijah's 
life until his heart was wounded and sore. The 
Lord never stops until He gets to the bottom 
of things ; but He wounds only that He may 
heal us, and He causes us to mourn, only that 
He may minister comfort to us. But before 
the Lord showed Elijah his own heart, He 
gave him a new vision of Himself. This was 
what Elijah needed more than anything else. 
His eyes had been so long upon himself and his 
own work, that he needed the correcting effect, 
and inspiring influence of a new spiritual vi- 
sion. The vision of God which the prophet re- 
ceived was sublime. First came the whirlwind 



Quiet Hour Talks 201 

with its rending of the mountain. Then came 
the earthquake with its convulsion of nature. 
And then came the fire with its display of migh- 
ty forces. But God was not in the whirlwind, 
nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire. These 
were manifestations of His power, but in them 
there was no revelation of His love. After- 
wards, when the upheavals of nature had sub- 
sided, came "the sound of gentle stillness" as 
the beautiful Hebrew expresses it. This was 
the "still, small voice" which revealed the 
very heart of God, with its infinite love and 
tenderness. What this sweet but searching 
voice of the Lord told Elijah, we know not; 
but its effect upon him is recorded. No won- 
der Elijah "wrapped his face in his mantle 
and went out and stood in the entering in of the 
cave." 

Beloved, this is the sure cure of despond- 
ency, — a new vision of God. This is what the 
Lord is waiting to give you. It was for the 
lack of this that you became discouraged and 
despondent. The best place to get a new vi- 
sion of God is in solitude. In some lonely 
spot, the heavens will be opened to you, and 



202 The Still Small Voice 

you will get a new vision of Jesus. But you 
also need a new vision of your own heart. 
There was a cause for your despondency. If 
there has been no sin, there surely has been 
some mistake; you have missed your way and 
gotten out of touch with God. Perhaps you 
have become too much absorbed in your work. 
Whatever be the matter, be sure that God will 
deal as faithfully with you as He did with Eli- 
jah. He will give you the needed discipline and 
correction. He will probe deep into your heart, 
sparing neither pain nor humiliation. He 
will not heal the surface wound and allow the 
blood to remain impure. But the Lord will not 
turn His flashlight upon your soul until He has 
first shown you Himself. If you saw yourself re- 
vealed in the full light of God's truth without 
first beholding Jesus with all His loveliness, 
the vision would only plunge you into deeper 
despondency. No good can come from looking 
at our own hearts unless the Lord shows them 
to us. He does not want us to be introspective. 
Only harm can come to one from keeping his 
finger on his spiritual pulse. It is necessary, 
of course, that we should see our weakness and 



Quiet Hour Talks 203 

helplessness, but only that we may forever take 
Him to be our strength and sufficiency. We 
must acknowledge our sins and shortcomings, 
but only that they may be put under the blood, 
that Christ may become our righteousness and 
our sanctification. 

4. The Lord gave Elijah a new message and 
a new mission. 

After Elijah had learned his lessons, and had 
been vouchsafed a new vision of God, he was 
recommissioned. The Lord sent him to anoint 
Elisha to be his successor, to anoint Jehu to be 
king over Israel and to anoint Hazael king 
of Damascus. Thus the prophet's expe- 
rience at Horeb was the beginning of a new and 
larger ministry. 

Thus it will be in your own life, discouraged 
and despondent worker. Your service for 
God is not finished; indeed you are not fit to 
die when in a state of depression. This exper- 
ience will only prove to be the stepping stone to 
a larger and higher ministry. The vision of 
God on the mountain top will only prepare you 
for more fruitful service on the plain below. 
The Lord indeed may not give you a new 



/ 



204 The Still Small Voice 

work. He may send you back to your old field 
of labor, but it will never be the same again. 
The work itself will seem new and fresh, be- 
cause your own spirit has been renewed and 
refreshed by a season of isolation and commun- 
ion with God. Moreover, the Lord will give 
you a new message. You will have a new 
love for the erring and the lost. The afflicted 
and the suffering will receive new consolation 
from your ministry. God will put a new spring 
into your life, and bring out of your service 
more fruit for His glory. 

This is the way the Lord cured the despond- 
ency of Elijah; in the same way will He cure 
your discouragement and depression. 



THE PRIESTLY BLESSING 

"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord 
make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious un- 
to thee: the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace. And they shall put My name 
upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them" 
(Num. vi. 24-27). 

THESE verses do not seem to have any con- 
nection with the chapter of which they 
form the close; indeed, they stand quite 
apart by themselves without context near or 
remote. For their significance we must turn 
to the work of the Old Testament priesthood. 
The office of the priest was threefold, namely, 
reconciliation, intercession and blessing. This 
will be clearly seen by following the ritual 
of the great day of atonement. On that day 
the priest first offered a sacrifice for the sins 
of the people, on the brazen altar in the court 
of the Tabernacle. He then carried the blood 
of the sacrificial victim within the veil, and 
sprinkled the mercy seat. Finally, he came out 
before the people and blessed them. It is be- 
lieved that these verses constitute the formula 



206 The Still Small Voice 

of blessing used by the priests. The work of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, 
was also threefold. On the cross he reconciled 
the world to God by the sacrifice of Himself. 
At His ascension He entered the presence of 
God, and is now fulfilling for us His ministry 
of intercession. When He returns to the earth 
again, while it will mean judgment for His en- 
emies, it will bring blessing to His own people. 
In a sense, Christ's earthly life foreshadowed 
this threefold priestly ministry. The spirit of 
His life was sacrificial. In the 17th of John 
we find the high priestly prayer He offered up 
to God as our Intercessor. The last picture we 
have of Christ at His ascension, is one of 
blessing ; with outstretched hands, as He arose, 
He left with His disciples His parting bene- 
diction. 

A careful study of these verses discloses the 
fact that they contain a threefold blessing; a 
blessing of the Father, a blessing of the Son, 
and a blessing of the Spirit. Furthermore, it 
will be noticed that in each instance there is a 
general and a special blessing. 

First, The blessing of God the Father. 



Quiet Hour Talks 207 

"The Lord bless thee and keep thee" (v. 24). 
The general blessing here is, "The Lord bless 

thee." The word "bless" literally means "to 
bend the knee." It is one of the most common 
words in the Bible, 'and expresses that abund- 
ance and variety of benefits which God is 
constantly conferring upon man. It is used 
alike of temporal bounty and of spiritual rich- 
es. As God the Father is the Source of all 
things, blessing flows primarily from Him (Ps. 
exxxiv. 4). 

The special blessing of God the Father is 
expressed in the words, "The Lord keep thee" 
(v. 24). 

The word "keep" expresses the thought of 
preservation and protection, which is the spe- 
cial office work of the Father as revealed in 
the Scriptures. "The Lord is thy Keeper" 
(Ps. cxx. 1). "I, the Lord, do keep it; I will 
water it every moment" (Isa. xxvi. 3). "Holy 
Father, keep through Thine own name those 
whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be 
one as we are." "I pray not that Thou shouldst 
take them out of the world, but that thou 
shouldst keep them from the Evil" (John xvii. 



208 The Still Small Voice 

ii, 15). "Kept through the power of God 
through faith" (I. Pet. i. 5). Angelic guar- 
dianship is connected with the work of the 
Father. "The angel of the Lord encampeth 
around them that fear Him." "He shall give 
His angels charge concerning thee to keep thee 
in all thy ways." Special providences come to 
us through God. He saves us from perils by 
land and by sea. He protects us from wasting 
fever and deadly pestilence. All around us 
are poisonous influences of contagion and dis- 
ease, yet the Lord keeps us free from their 
power. "Many are the afflictions of the right- 
eous, but the Lord delivers him out of them 
all." 

Second, The blessing of the Son. 

The general blessing here is, "The Lord 
make His face shine upon thee (v. 25). This 
of course is simply an Oriental expression for 
blessing (Ps. xxxi. 16; II. Cor. iv. 6). When 
God makes His face to shine upon us, it is 
proof of His favor and acceptance. 

The special blessing of the Son is found in 
the words, "The Lord be gracious unto thee" 
(v. 25). The words "gracious" and "merciful" 



Quiet Hour Talks 209 

are connected with the same root in Hebrew ; 
they both have a vital relation to the sacrifice 
of Christ. This is seen in the thirty-third 
chapter of Job. There the discipline of sick- 
ness is described. A man who has not hearken- 
ed to God is represented as wasting on his bed 
of sickness. An interpreter, one among a thou- 
sand, appears to show man "what is right 
for him/' "Then God is gracious unto him 
and saith, Deliver him from going down to the 
pit, I have found a ranson." In the margin 
we read for "ransom," "atonement" (verse24). 
The meaning is quite clear. At last the poor 
man is brought to see salvation by faith 
through the Coming One. He has found a ran- 
som through the atonement of Christ. Now 
God can be gracious to him. There is a pop- 
ular idea today that all God has to do is to 
forgive the sinner; but this He cannot do ex- 
cept on the basis of the atoning work of 
Christ. God can never show mercy or be gra- 
cious unto the sinner unless he accepts by faith 
the salvation provided in Christ. The publi- 
can went down to his house justified, because 
he had prayed, "God be merciful to me a sin- 



210 The Still Small Voice 

ner." His appeal for mercy is evidence of his 
recognition of sin and of his possession of 
faith in Christ. From the cross alone can 
streams of mercy and grace flow to the sinner. 

Third, The blessing of the Spirit. 

The general blessing here is, "The Lord lift 
up His countenance upon thee" (v. 26). Lift- 
ing up one's countenance, like making one's 
face to shine, is just another expression for 
blessing. The hiding of God's face means 
darkness and death; the revealing of His face 
means light and life (Ps. iv. 6; xi. 7). 

The special blessing is found in the words, 
"The Lord give thee peace" (v. 26). 

In the Scriptures peace is especially con- 
nected with the work of the Holy Spirit. The 
first symbol of the Holy Spirit in both the Old 
and the New Testament is a dove, and a dove 
is the emblem of peace. In Genesis i. 2, the 
word "moved" literally means "brooded" ; the 
Spirit of God, like the mother dove, brooded 
over the face of the deep, bringing order out of 
chaos and life out of death. 

At His baptism the Holy Ghost in the form 
of a dove descended upon Jesus and abode with 



Quiet Hour Talks 211 

Him. It is the Holy Spirit who makes real 
in us what Christ has made real for us. It is 
He who gives us "peace with God" — the peace 
of reconciliation. It is He who gives us the 
deeper peace of communion — the "peace that 
passeth all understanding." It is the Holy 
Spirit who gives us security and serenity of 
heart and mind. He keeps us in a calm and 
holy tranquility. "Thou wilt keep him in per- 
fect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." 

The above analysis has thus disclosed three 
pairs of blessings, corresponding in charac- 
ter to the work of each member of the Trini- 
ty. The first member of each pair is the 
word "bless," or an equivalent expression; while 
the second member of each pair brings out 
distinctly the special office work of the Father, 
the Son and the Holy Spirit. In a word, from 
the Triune God, blessing and favor and ac- 
ceptance flow to the sinner; while, in particu- 
lar, God the Father keeps, God the Son atones, 
and God the Spirit bestows peace. 

This priestly blessing closes with a beautiful 
doxology which contains two striking thoughts. 

"And they shall put My name upon the chil- 



212 The Still Small Voice 

dren of Israel" (v. 27). The imposition of 
God's name implies three things. First, own- 
ership, "I have called thee by My name, thou 
art Mine." The Lord puts His name upon us 
because we belong to Him. We have been re- 
deemed not by silver or gold, but by the pre- 
cious blood of Christ. Second, relationship, 
God puts His name upon us not only because 
we belong to Him, but because we have been 
made partakers of the divine nature. We have 
been born of God by regeneration ; and having 
the family nature, we take also the family 
name. Third, authority. To have the name 
of God put upon us, is to be invested with 
divine rights and privileges, to be clothed with 
divine authority. This is what the use of the 
name of Jesus in prayer means. To ask the Fa- 
ther for anything in the name of Jesus, does not 
mean that we tack on His name to our own 
requests; but it means that we come to God 
just as Jesus would come to God, with the 
same authority and right. We have, so to 
speak, the power of attorney at the Court of 
Heaven. God has put His seal and signet ring 
into our hands ; we may use them with author- 



Quiet Hour Talks 213 

ity. To be invested with the name and nature 
and authority of Christ, involves a solemn ob- 
ligation, but it also confers a glorious privi- 
lege. 

The last thought is, "I will bless them." No- 
tice the change from the third to the first per- 
son. In the earlier verses, we read, "The Lord 
bless thee"; in the last verse we read, "I will 
bless them." The pronoun "I" expresses per- 
sonal intimacy and love. It also expresses the 
personal unity of the Trinity. Why is the 
change made from the third to the first person ? 
The explanation lies in the imposition of the 
divine name upon Israel. Israel now belonged 
to God; the people bore His name, and were 
invested with divine rights. So God's dealings 
with them became personal and intimate. It is 
not the priest who speaks now, but the Lord: 
'7 will bless them." 

Beloved, what a glorious blessing this is. 
What more do we want than to be assured 
that the Father keeps us, the Son saves us, and 
the Spirit breathes His peace into our hearts ? 
As Christians, we bear Christ's name. We be- 
long to Him by redemption. We are born into 



214 The Still Small Voice 

Him by regeneration, and we are clothed with 
divine power by the baptism and indwelling of 
the Holy Spirit. May I leave this benediction 
with you? Live in its atmosphere. Meet 
God, not in the third, but in the first person. 
When He says to you, "I have called thee by 
My name, thou art Mine/' look up into His 
face with confidence and say, "I am my Belov- 
ed's and my Beloved is mine." 



TRANSFORMED BY BEHOLDING 

"But we all, with open face, beholding as in a 
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 
of the Lord" (II. Cor. iii. 18). 

THERE are three propositions to which all 
believers will give their assent. First, 
Jesus Christ is the divine Ideal of our 
lives. Second, our lives come very far short 
of meeting this ideal. Third, it is our duty as 
far as possible and as fast as possible to real- 
ize this ideal in our lives. But there is a 
question concerning which there may be some 
practical difference of opinion; and that is, 
the way in which we shall attain our divine 
standard of character and conduct. How shall 
we measure up to all that God expects of us? 
Briefly, there are two ways of seeking to 
become Christlike ; one is by doing something, 
and the other is by believing something. The 
one is the way of nature, and the other is the 
way of grace; the one is the Old Testament 
method and the other is the New Testament 



216 The Still Small Voice 

method; doing something is of the Law; be- 
lieving something is of the Gospel. 

The purpose of the Law of Moses was 
threefold: First, it revealed the righteousness 
and holiness of God; second, it revealed the 
sinfulness and helplessness of man ; and third, 
it called upon man by the effort of his own 
will to measure up to God's requirement. The 
language of the Law was, "Do this and thou 
shalt live." But the Law failed. It had no 
power to confer the gift of righteousness. It 
was superceded by the Gospel. However, to- 
day many believers are living and acting un- 
der the Law. They employ pledges and use 
will power and resort to efforts and struggles 
of all kinds to make themselves better. Alas, 
poor human nature likes to do something to 
help itself. But it is the old story of the 
seventh of Romans repeated. There Paul tells 
us how he struggled against his own evil na- 
ture under the condemnation of the Law ; and 
how at last he got his eyes on Jesus, who lift- 
ed him by a new power into liberty and victory. 
God's method of making us holy is by requir- 
ing us to believe something. In the story of 



Quiet Hour Talks 217 

the brazen serpent we have the Gospel in 
the Old Testament. The bitten Israelites had 
only to look at the brazen serpent to be made 
whole. So the prophet, speaking by the Spirit, 
cries, "Look unto me, all ye ends of the 
earth, and be ye saved." The writer to the 
Hebrews bids us look away unto Jesus, "the 
Author and Finisher of our faith." 

There are two ways to get to the top of a tall 
building. One is by slowly and tediously 
climbing up the flights of stairs. This is get- 
ting up by your own power and always means 
great exertion. There is a better way and that 
is to step into an elevator on the ground floor 
and be lifted noiselessly and quickly to the top. 
God uses the elevator plan in lifting us out of 
the guilt and power of sin, and into the light 
and liberty of holiness. Many people have a 
wrong idea about the story of Jacob's wrestling 
with the angel. They think that Jacob got hold 
of the angel and wrestled until he wore the an- 
gel out, when he received his blessing. But 
the truth is that the angel hung on to Jacob 
until he wore Jacob out, or rather till Jacob 
w T ore himself out; and then, when Jacob got 



218 The Still Small Voice 

quiet and restful, the angel gave him his bless- 
ing. This is the way the Lord does with us. 
He waits until we have got all through strug- 
gling and straining and then when we have 
reached the end of ourselves He steps in and 
lifts us up into our blessing. 

This is just what our verse means, — trans- 
formed by beholding. We look up at Christ 
with open vision and while w r e gaze at Him, 
we are transformed from glory to glory into 
the same image. The Greek word translated 
"beholding as in a mirror," may also be ren- 
dered "reflecting as in a mirror/' Perhaps the 
full idea will be brought out by combining these 
two translations. The word "transformed" 
may be also rendered "transfigured" ; it is the 
same used of the transfiguration of Christ. 
The glory of God revealed in the face 
of Jesus Christ is not reflected from us 
as from a polished surface, but it irra- 
diates us, permeating and glorifying our 
whole nature. If you sit where the set- 
ting sun streams in upon you through a 
stained glass window, the beautiful colors of 
the window are reflected upon you. But this 



Quiet Hour Talks 219 

is only a superficial reflection; it does not 
strike within and transform your character. A 
little piece of tin bent and dirty will catch the 
rays of the sun and shine like a diamond point, 
but the tin has only reflected the light and re- 
mains an old piece of tin. Not so do we re- 
flect the glory of God as we gaze upon Christ. 
While we look steadfastly the light of God en- 
ters our hearts and the life of God transforms 
them. While we look we are slowly but steadi- 
ly changed into the likeness of Christ. 

Now, this has a very practical application, 
even in little things. If there is something 
in your life that is not in accord with the will 
of God, some infirmity of temper or sinful 
habit, don't struggle against it. Turn away 
from yourself and look at Christ. Behold 
Him in all His beauty. While you keep your 
eyes on Christ, God will deal with you and take 
away the thing that hinders and harms, and 
give you deliverance. Just look, that is all. 
Will to look at Christ under all circumstances. 
Look steadily, constantly, persistently. This 
is the best means of growing in grace 
and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. The 



220 The Still Small Voice 

process may be mysterious, but the result is 
glorious. 

A man once dreamed that he was at the bot- 
tom of a deep well. He called for help, but his 
cries were unheard. He tried to climb up the 
sides of the well, but could make no headway, 
and soon wore out his strength. As he lay 
helplessly looking up, he saw a star. It held his 
gaze, and he soon felt himself rising. Not will- 
ing to believe his senses, he looked down and 
found himself at the bottom of the well again. 
Once more his eye caught the star, and he was 
conscious of being lifted. After a while he 
again became sceptical and looked down, and 
fell back into the well. He lay in despair for a 
while ; but for the third time looked at the star. 
This time he kep his gaze fixed, and was slowly 
but surely lifted out of the well. Beloved, 
Christ is our "bright and morning Star." Look- 
ing unto Him will lift us out of the bondage of 
sin and self. But as often as we look at our- 
selves, we shall fall back into the miry pit of our 
own helpless and hopeless struggles. But if 
we keep our eyes transfixed upon Him, He 



Quiet Hour Talks 221 

will lift us out of ourselves into Himself. We 
shall be " transformed by beholding." 

In the little acorn lies the mighty oak. But 
the acorn can never become the oak by strain- 
ing and struggling. It must lie quiet and let 
the sun kiss it and the dew of heaven water it. 
Slowly but surely the forces of nature will 
cause the acorn to unfold, and out of it will 
be developed the majestic oak. So the seed of 
the divine nature has been planted in our hearts. 
In this little spiritual seed lie dormant the full 
possibilities of Christlikeness of character and 
conduct. But we can never grow into Christ's 
image by efforts and struggles of our own ; we 
must lie still and let the sunlight of God kiss 
us and dew of God's grace water us. Thus God 
Himself will cause that little seed in our hearts 
to unfold and develop. Christlikeness in its full 
maturity will not come all at once. We shall 
be transformed "from glory to glory." Henry 
Drummond translated this phrase "from char- 
acter to character." Slowly but surely we shall 
come into the full stature of Christian man- 
hood. From a lower experience of grace to a 
higher; from one stage of holy living to an- 



222 The Still Small Voice 

other; from grace to grace, and from grace to 
glory, God will transform us, transfigure us 
into the image of Christ. Our business is to 
behold Christ; His business is to transform 
us. 

TRANSFORMED BY BEHOLDING. 

"They say," it whispered, "that came from earth, 
The great sea lay and looked on high, 
When, floating aloft in the lovely sky, 
It saw a fleecy cloud, so light, 
So pure, so spotless, and so bright; 
And it wondered whence so fleet a form 
Arose, the heavens to adorn. 

And more, that I had given it birth. 
But how absurd to think that I 
Could ever mount that lofty sky!" 
And then the sea heaved such a sigh 
As it watched the beauteous thing on high. 

"Ah, I could never be like thee; 
In the bosom of God thou seem'st to be. 
Besides" — and the sea was silent now, 
As it thought of its wild and fevered brow; 
And how oft in its rage it had dealt a blow 
That laid thousands dead in its depths below. 

And yet I perceived the sea could not rest 
As it looked at that beauteous thing so blest. 
Then it roused itself, and said, "I will try," 
And it borrowed the wind to drive it high; 
And, gathering its strength, it curled in its pride, 
And dashed itself on the rocks beside; 



Quiet Hour Talks 223 

Then, rearing a column of quivering spray, 
It seemed to be borne to the heights away. 

But it fell, alas ! on the angry breast, 
Back with its foaming, whitened crest. 
Baffled and beaten it buried its head, 
To hide in the depths of its ocean bed. 
And it hissed as it did so, "It cannot be; 
I said, I knew it was not for me." 

At length the great sea lay quiet and still, 

For fell despair had subdued its will; 

When the glorious sun looked forth on the scene, 

And gleamed on its bosom in silver sheen. 

And the great sea looked in the face of the sun, 

And asked if he knew what could be done; 

"The moon draws me hither and thither," it said, 

"But it cannot uplift me from my bed ; 
Nor can it transform this turbid breast 
Into that thing so pure and blest." 

"Canst thou transform me?" said the sea. 

"Oh, yes," said the sun, "if you'll suffer me." 
And the sun sent down a noiseless ray, 
That loosened and warmed it as it lay, 
And lifted it up, how, it never knew, 
A fleecy cloud in the heavens blue. 

Do you ken the parable, reader fair? 

Can you take the lesson that's couching there? 

Are you that sea with its fond desire, 

Sighing and struggling to rise up higher? 

Does perfect grace attract thine eye 

And to attain it dost thou try? 

But do baffled efforts mock thy skill, 

While sorrow and anguish thy spirit fill, 



224 The Still Small Voice 

And thou say'st : "In God's bosom that grace must 

rest; 
It never can visit my troubled breast"? 

Now change thy plan, and behold yon Son. 

Just rest and trust and the work is done. 

Transformed by beholding Him thouTt be, 

His great salvation thou shalt see. 

The process? well, that thou canst not know, 

Enough for thee it is "even so," 

That lifts thee up and makes thee fit 

In the heavenly places with Him to sit. 



THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT 

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Je- 
sus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all 
comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, 
that we may be able to comfort them that are 
in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we our- 
selves are comforted of God" (II. Cor. i. 3, 4). 

THERE are two kinds of suffering which 
Christians endure. One is the conse- 
quence of ill-doing and the other is the 
consequence of well-doing. The suffering that 
results from ill-doing is chastisement. The 
suffering that results from well-doing is enrich- 
ment — the spiritual enrichment of our own 
lives and the lives of those to whom we minis- 
ter. Every time the believer gets out of the 
will of God, he suffers. Like a wise and lov- 
ing father, God chastens him for his profit 
(Heb. xii. 5-1 1) . Much of this kind of suf- 
fering may be avoided by hearkening to God 
and walking in obedience to His holy will. But 
even when the believer abides in Christ and 
walks in the "comfort of the Holy Ghost," 



226 The Still Small Voice 

he will have much affliction and tribulation. 
This kind of suffering cannot be avoided. It is 
the divine lot of the Christian. It is this sec- 
ond kind of suffering which Paul speaks of in 
this chapter. Such suffering and affliction come 
that we may "know the God of all comfort" 
and that we may minister spiritual comfort to 
others. Let us consider the twofold purpose of 
our "suffering with Christ" : 

First, The spiritual enrichment of our own 
lives. 

This enrichment consists in part of a better 
knowledge of God. The names of God are 
revelations of His character. They also ex- 
press relationships which we may sustain to 
Him. To know God as a given name reveals 
Him, we must meet the conditions of knowl- 
edge implied by that name. Thus, to know 
Christ as a Saviour one must realize that he 
is a sinner. He only can experience salvation 
who has felt the guilt and known the power 
of sin. The "God of peace" can only be known 
by him whose mind has been distracted and 
whose heart has been distressed. In like man- 
ner the onlv way to know "the God of all 



Quiet Hour Talks 227 

comfort" is to feel the need of comfort. For 
this reason trials and afflictions are allowed to 
come to us that we may learn to know "the 
Father of mercies and the God of all comfort." 
It is a common experience for a faithful 
Christian to meet a severe trial or bitter afflic- 
tion. Perhaps it is a business reverse or a 
domestic bereavement. It may be that an in- 
jury is sustained or that health is lost. The 
first feeling that comes at such a time is that 
perhaps one is not right with God, and that this 
is a judgment for disobedience. Satan is apt 
to suggest unkind or unjust thoughts of God's 
love and care. Of course, such afflictions do 
come as chastisements, when a Christian is out 
of the will of God. But the experience now 
described is not of that character. There is 
no consciousness of departure in any way from 
the path of obedience, while the sense of fel- 
lowship with Christ is unbroken. What is the 
explanation of such an experience? Why, 
beloved, the Lord is teaching you to know 
Him in a deeper way. He has permitted the 
dark trial to come to you that He may reveal 
Himself to you as the God of all comfort. It 



228 The Still Small Voice 

may be that you have been praying to know 
Him more fully. Well, accept this, then, as 
the answer to your prayer. Of course, the 
better knowledge of the Lord has not come in 
the way you expected, but it has come in the 
way that is best for you. Maybe you expected 
a vision of Christ, or the opening of the Word 
in a marked way by the Spirit. There is a 
knowledge of God to be obtained by contempla- 
tion, by prayer, and by the devout study of the 
Scriptures. But there is also a knowledge of 
God that can only be gained through trial and 
suffering. For this reason the Lord puts us 
through the "furnace of affliction." He lets 
us get into tight places that we may know 
Him as the "God of deliverance." 

Again, this enrichment of our lives consists 
also in the development of a more Christ-like 
character. 

There are fruits of the Spirit that grow only 
in the soil of sorrow and suffering. Some 
varieties of apples are ripened only by the 
rough October blast. Their flavor and mel- 
lowness are produced by the fall winds. Self- 
reliance is developed in a boy by throwing 



Quiet Hour Talks 229 

him upon his own resources. The soldier learns 
to be courageous by facing the enemy in bat- 
tle. In like manner, some of the most essential 
graces of Christian character are developed by 
what are called adverse conditions. Thus un- 
tested faith is worthless. Peter assures us that 
it is the trial of our faith that is more precious 
than gold. Again, patience grows in the soil 
of irritating and annoying surroundings. Long- 
suffering, too, springs into full bloom amid 
natural causes of great provocation. In a word 
we have to pass through experiences which 
furnish the conditions of developing Christ- 
likeness of character in its symmetry and ma- 
turity. To escape sorrow and suffering is to 
lack the depth and ripeness of character which 
only sorrow and suffering can produce. To 
know Christ's strength we must feel our own 
weakness ; to know Christ's joy we must ex- 
perience earth's sorrow; to know the consola- 
tion of Christ we must be made partakers of 
His suffering. 

However, the experience of this darker side 
of life should not be invited or sought; but 
when the Lord in His wisdom sends it, accept 



230 The Still Small Voice 

it as a necessary process of transforming you 
into the image of Christ. Do not begin to fear 
that something is wrong, but rejoice that ev- 
erything is right. For it is only those who are 
right with God who are called to the fellowship 
of Christ's sufferings. "Beloved, think it not 
strange concerning the fiery trial which is to 
try you as though some strange thing hap- 
pened unto you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye 
are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when 
His glory shall be revealed, ye may rejoice 
with exceeding joy (I. Pet. iv. 12, 13). 

Second, The enrichment of the lives of oth- 
ers. 

The divine order as expressed to Abraham 
was, "I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a 
blessing" (Gen. xii. 1, 2). Thus the refrain 
of a well-known hymn runs : "Bless me, Lord, 
and make me a blessing." 

The Lord first enriches our own lives 
through the experiences of trial and suffering, 
and then uses us to enrich the lives of others 
who are in similar circumstances. As fast as 
the grapes ripen on our vine, their juice is to be 



Quiet Hour Talks 231 

pressed out for the refreshment and sustenance 
of others. 

One channel for our enrichment of other 
lives is the ministry of the Word. There is a 
marked difference between preaching the Gos- 
pel from a theoretical knowledge and preach- 
ing it from an experimental knowledge — a dif- 
ference noticeable in spirit, method and result. 
In a sketch of the life of the late Dr. A. J. Gor- 
don, of Boston, Dr. A. T. Pierson wrote : "No 
man can preach with power one step beyond 
his own personal experience. One may truth- 
fully and beautifully portray the Gospel of 
Christ, but if it only comes from his head, it 
will not have much influence with his hearers. 
Somehow a hearer, even when unconverted, 
can always tell when a preacher speaks from 
his heart. There is a certain ring about a 
heart message that cannot be mistaken. If a 
preacher feels the power of what he is saying 
his hearers will feel the power of it, too. Con- 
sequently, if a minister or Christian worker 
wants to preach a Gospel of grace and comfort 
to those who are in tribulation, he himself also, 
through tribulation, must have learned to know 



232 The Still Small Voice 

the God of all grace and comfort. There is no 
other way, and there is no substitute. If one's 
messages are to be helpful to others, he must 
not only be taught of the Spirit in the deep 
things of God, but he must also be trained in 
the school of discipline and suffering. 

Another channel through which we enrich 
other lives is the ministry of personal dealing. 
In the public ministration of the Word, one 
who portrays an experience of grace to which 
he himself has not yet attained may indeed 
help other lives, for God will always bless His 
Word, no matter who may proclaim it. But 
in personal and private contact with souls who 
are struggling with the problems of severe 
trial and suffering, such a one will find himself 
helpless. Then it is that words of comfort 
sound hollow, unless they flow from a heart 
that has in similar straits been comforted by 
God. Our ability to bless others in personal 
dealing is measured by the extent to which 
we ourselves have been blessed of God. We 
cannot give what we have not received. We 
cannot teach others lessons that we have not 
learned. 



Quiet Hour Talks 233 

A young man just out of the theological 
seminary became the pastor of a large church. 
He had a fair knowledge of the Scriptures and 
had an earnest desire to help his people in pub- 
lic and in private to live conscientious and con- 
secrated lives for God. But he lacked exper- 
ience. Soon a family in his church was be- 
reaved of a little child, and he went to comfort 
the stricken parents. He talked very beautiful- 
ly of the love of God and His sustaining 
grace, but somehow he felt that his words did 
not reach their hearts. Later he himself lost 
a little one. Then he knew what loneliness 
and sorrow death brings, and in his distress he 
found his way to the heart of the God of all 
comfort. Afterward, when he went to the house 
of mourning, he found that his presence 
brought cheer and his words brought com- 
fort. The few words that he spoke touched 
sore hearts, and somehow the glistening eye 
and tender handclasp went even further than 
his words. He knew from experience, and he 
knew also how to minister the comfort where- 
with he himself had been comforted of God. 

Beloved, the prayer of us all is that we may 



234 The Still Small Voice 

bless others. We all long to do something that 
will help those around us. Well, the strange 
trials and the severe suffering which we en- 
dure arc God's answers to our prayers. Look 
at your sorrows and afflictions in this light, and 
it will glorify them. It often happens that one 
who has just passed through severe affliction 
is called by the Spirit to minister to one who is 
passing through a similar trial. If you had 
not experienced that' sore affliction, my friend, 
you could not have helped that brother or that 
sister in similar distress. Don't shrink, then, 
from the fiery furnace ! Endure patiently a 
cirat fight of affliction. Never mind if you 
struggle against foes vrithout and fears with- 
in. Remember that it is not only enriching your 
life, but preparing you to enrich the lives of 
others. "For as the sufferings of Christ 
abound, so our consolation also aboundeth by 
Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for 
your consolation and salvation, which is ef- 
tual in the enduring of the same afflictions 
which we also suffer: or whether we be com- 
forted, it is for vour consolation and salvation" 
(II. Cor. i. 5. 6). 



AN EXPECTED END 

"I know the thoughts that I think toward you, 
saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to 
give you an expected end" (Jer. xxix. n). 

THERE is nothing more wonderful than 
the power of thought. Some scientists 
would have us believe that thought is the 
product of materialism ; that "the brain secretes 
thought just as the liver secretes bile." But 
thought is the working of an intelligent mind, 
one of the powers of personality. Even more 
wonderful than man's thought is God's thought. 
In God thinking is proof of personality. What 
God's thoughts are we see in the achievements 
of the divine mind ; for the Lord, to think is to 
do. The vastness and variety of creation with 
all its beauty and grandeur; man with his 
wonderful, composite nature, body, soul and 
spirit; the cross of Christ with the salvation 
from sin it provides; the Christian Church 
with its variety and richness of gifts and 



236 The Still Small Voice 

graces; — these are some of the thoughts of 
God. 

This little verse tells us three things about 
the thoughts of God, viz., their object, their 
nature and their goal. 

First, The object of God's thoughts. 

Even more wonderful than the thoughts 
of God is the object of His thoughts as revealed 
in this verse. "I know the thoughts that I 
think toward you" Man is the object of the 
divine thought ; not man in his original state of 
righteousness, but man in his fallen state of sin. 
There would be nothing surprising about God's 
thinking of Adam who was made in His image ; 
but there is something surprising indeed, in 
God's thinkmg of the poor sinner in whom the 
divine image has been effaced. Yes, beloved, 
God's thoughts are turned toward you and 
me; for we have only to write our names in- 
stead of the word "you" in this verse to get 
the spiritual meaning. 

But why are the thoughts of God toward 
you and me? Well, one reason is because He 
loves us. God loves you and me. What a 
familiar statement this is ; yet if we fully real- 



Quiet Hour Talks, 237 

ized it our hearts would be thrilled with joy 
and gratitude. Another reason that God's 
thoughts are toward us is that Christ died for 
us. "God so loved the world that He gave 
His only begotten Son." God loves us be- 
cause we have cost Him so much, — the gift of 
His only begotten Son. If you and I had been 
the only poor helpless sinners in the whole 
world, Christ would still have died for us. This 
statement must be true for Jesus taught that 
the value of one soul was greater than that 
of the whole world. The third reason that 
God's thoughts are toward us is that the Holy 
Spirit indwells us. You know how much 
money and time we spend in making our homes 
comfortable and beautiful. We lay down soft 
carpets, adorn the walls with attractive pic- 
tures, and, in fact, put in all the modern con- 
veniences and comforts that we can afford. 
We take all this care just because we live in 
our homes ; they are the constant objects of our 
thought. Now, it is just because the Holy 
Spirit lives in us that God's thoughts are so 
constantly toward us. God is our home; but 
our hearts are His home; and He wants to 



238 The Still Small Voice 

make the place of His abode pure and beauti- 
ful. This, then, explains why God's thoughts 
are turned toward man; he is the subject of 
God's love, the object of Christ's sacrifice, and 
the place of the Spirit's indwelling. 

Second, The nature of God's thoughts. 

It is comforting to know that God's thoughts 
are about us ; but it is more comforting to 
know what the thoughts are which He is think- 
ing toward us. In our little verse we are told 
that they are "thoughts of peace and not of 
evil." Indeed, we might have been assured 
that God's thoughts toward us were for our 
peace, from the fact, already seen, that He 
loves us, gave His Son to die for us, and has 
sent forth His Spirit into our hearts. If we 
have an enemy and hear that he is thinking 
about us we are quite sure that he is meditating 
evil. But God is not our enemy, but our 
friend; consequently we may be sure that all 
His thoughts tow T ard us are for our good. 
"What," you say, "can it be true that this 
long delay in realizing my hopes, this severe 
trial through which I am passing, this dark 
pathway wherein I am treading, these. strug- 



Quiet Hour Talks 239 

gles and conflicts with the adversary, yes, and 
even the failure which discourages me and the 
defeat which threatens — is it true that all these 
things mean 'peace'?" Yes, beloved; God says 
that His thoughts are upon us for our peace; 
and so these afflictions and perplexities of heart 
and mind must somehow be among the "all 
things" that are working together for 
good. In spite of our feelings and circum- 
stances we must learn to put God's estimate 
upon all the varied experiences of life. It did 
not seem to mean "peace" for Joseph when 
he was cast into prison; yet long afterwards 
he told his brethren that, while they meant 
their act for evil, "God meant it unto good." It 
surely didn't look like "peace" for Moses when 
after setting himself up as the deliverer of his 
people God sent him to the backside of the des- 
ert for forty years. Yet the wilderness was 
his school of discipline and experience to train 
him to be the lawgiver and military leader 
of Israel. Reverently we may say that it did 
not seem to be God's thought of "peace" for 
Jesus that He should be rejected and crucified 
by the Jews, vet this was the pathway through 



240 The Still Small Voice 

which He secured eternal salvation for man- 
kind. 

Likewise we may count our life at the pres- 
ent moment, even though every evidence con- 
tradicts it, one that is making for our peace. 
Approaching Jersey City by the Erie road one 
suddenly plunges into a long, dark tunnel. 
From the bright sunlight the train enters a 
damp, dank hole in the ground. One who had 
never entered New York by this route might 
feel bewildered for a moment. He had just 
seen the buildings and ascending smoke of the 
city ; he seemed almost at his destination. Sud- 
denly, however, he is whirled into the earth and 
the bright vision is blotted out. What does 
it mean? Why, going through that tunnel is 
the only way to get into New York. It looks 
certainly like a thought of evil thus to have 
one's hopes apparently buried in the ground; 
but it is really a thought of peace, for present- 
ly the train emerges from the tunnel and the 
sparkling river and the towering buildings of 
the great city lie spread out before the eyes. 
The tourist is in New York. 

Third, The goal of God's thoughts. 



Quiet Hour Talks 24> 

"I know the thoughts that I think toward 
you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not 
of evil, to give you an expected end" It has 
already been anticipated that the goal toward 
which God's thoughts of peace concerning us 
are making is to give us an expected end. The 
American Revised Version renders "to give 
you hope in your latter end." Literally the 
Hebrew means, "an end and an expectation." 
By paraphrasing this expression its signifi- 
cance can be brought out in a number of ways : 
to give you the end that you have expected: 
to give you the end that you have waited for ; 
to give you the end that you have desired. In 
a word, the thought or purpose of God in our 
lives is to work out that very end which both 
He and we most desire. Of course, it is not 
the end of a worldly ambition ; for the children 
of God are supposed to have given up the 
gratification of selfish aims. It is the expected 
end that God has put into your heart, the full 
apprehension of all that for which you have 
been apprehended by Christ Jesus. The Jews 
to whom this word of comfort came were in 
captivity in Babylon. The seventy years were 



242 The Still Small Voice 

slowly wearing away ; the people were growing 
restless under their restraint; and were begin- 
ning to build their hopes on assurances of 
speedy deliverance which false prophets were 
holding out. To them the word of the Lord 
comes in a letter from Jeremiah in Jerusalem. 
The Lord had not forgotten them. He prom- 
ises deliverance from captivity and restoration 
to the promised land. This was the goal of 
His purpose and of their hope ; but it could not 
be brought to pass till the seventy years had 
run their full course. Meanwhile, even the 
hardships and deprivations of captivity were 
making for their peace. This is the historic 
setting of the verse; and it finds illustration 
not only in Biblical examples, but in Christian 
experience. Look again at Joseph and Moses. 
Pharaoh's prison was Joseph's tunnel; it was 
God's way to the throne of Egypt. The back- 
side of the desert was Moses' tunnel; he was 
forty years going through it; but it was the 
shortest cut God had to fit Moses for national 
leadership. Gethsemane and Golgotha were 
the dark but necessary pathway to the resurrec- 



Quiet Hour Talks 243 

tion and the ascension. "As He is so are we in 
this world." 

Instead of a tunnel some of us may be going 
through a funnel. The only way to get out is 
through the little end. This means subtrac- 
tion and contraction on our part. We must 
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of 
God. The big capital letter "I" will surely stick 
in the funnel; the only way out for us is to 
die out. 

Beloved, God's thought is toward you and 
His will is for you. The expected end of your 
heart's desire is a consummation which means 
far more to Him than it does to you. Indeed, 
your very expectation is from Him (Ps. lxii. 
5). It was He who put the expected end in 
your heart. "He which hath begun a good work 
in you will finish it, until the day of Christ Je- 
sus." If the Lord has called you to the mission 
field you will surely get your expected end. 
Though the vision tarry long yet wait for its 
fulfilment; it will surely come. You don't 
want your "expected end" before it is God's 
time. Do not be indifferent nor impatient. 
Do not hinder nor hasten God. Keep in step 



244 The Still Small Voice 

each day with His known will for you. Count 
the days and months not a delay but a waiting 
time ; a waiting for God. A premature realiza- 
tion of your hopes might frustrate God's pur- 
pose. You cannot afford to lose any needed 
lesson. Is it not enough for you to know that 
you are in His will whether you are in active 
service or in patient waiting or even in severe 
suffering? Meanwhile, be of good cheer. Com- 
fort thyself in the knowledge that God's 
thought is toward thee, He is working for thy 
peace, and will give thee thy expected end. 



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